Grammar review builds confidence for students

 October 1, 2004

An emerging trend found in surveys of students and alumni has indicated that students have stronger skills relating to interpreting literature, writing, and thinking, but a weaker knowledge of grammar.

To help bolster students’ writing skills, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater has added English 111: Grammar Review for Formal Writing to the curriculum, offered three times each semester. This course, found under the English selections in the course catalog, is designed to be a five-week intensive organized review of the principles of grammar, punctuation and usage that are associated with formal English.

The class was originally designed with education majors in mind, according to Michael Longrie, associate professor of languages and literatures, who is teaching the course this semester. “The course will range from parts of speech to syntax, issues of grammar versus usage, to punctuation and word choice,” he said.

According to Longrie, students’ uncertainty about identifying parts of speech, the rules governing punctuation, syntactic structures (how sentences are constructed), and the terminology of grammar, might be attributed to the fact that grammar is not universally studied in grades 4 through 8. “Every professor of English has what you call ‘horror stories’ of grammar,” he said.

Grammar Review for Formal Writing is a valuable capstone course for students about to test the job market. All university students are encouraged to enroll in the new one credit English 111 to enhance their grammar skills, which can be an invaluable tool in any profession.