Grammar, in my opinion, is one of the most difficult issues to address during a tutoring session. I am constantly questioning my decision to address a grammatical error - is it really impeding my understanding of the sentence? Is it an error that the student repeats throughout the paper? Grammar errors used to be my pet peeve - I couldn't stand when others didn't "get" the grammar rules that were drilled into my head in middle school. Needless to say, I've had to let go of this anger towards grammar mistakes since I began tutoring.
My relationship with grammar had already been uneasy before I started at the Writing Center, however. It all started when I found out that the designation of "its" as a possessive instead of "it's" was an arbitrary decision made by some editor that stuck. That was probably the first time that I realized that grammar rules are quite often arbitrary and probably shouldn't be considered strictly. Williams, I think, illustrates this point perfectly with his examples of authors violating the same rules they are trying to explain.
Even so, I also found myself agreeing with many of Micciche's points. Even though many of the rules are arbitrary, we have to follow the most basic ones in order to adopt an "academic" voice and want others to take our written work seriously. Grammar can be rhetorical - why else do we use dashes and commas in our writing? Tone is not only established by word choice - grammar plays a huge part, too. I think examining grammar rhetorically is a great teaching tool - even if we can't agree on all of the grammar rules, our students should at least be able to follow the most basic ones (it is a part of understanding, too). Even if it is not our central focus, grammar needs to be a part of the conversation, and Micciche provides an interesting way to discuss it with our students.
I agree with you on that first point - and honestly, it's often easier not talking about grammar in tutoring sessions. Students often feel insecure about their grammar skills; sometimes I do as well. Yesterday I had an online tutoring session from a journalism student copyeditor, and I must have proofread the note I sent to her four times.
ReplyDeleteI think I would add grammar toward the end of the semester for my class. I think it's important to discuss grammar and how it is used in an "academic voice". Perhaps a week around grammar, style, and usage would be useful for students to understand the distinctions between the three and we could discuss how grammar is rhetorical and gets its meaning from the community.
ReplyDeleteLike you, Melanie and Molly, grammar is not my favorite subject in tutoring sessions. Most often, when a student wants to discuss grammar in his/her paper, I'll only comment on it if s/he makes consistent mistakes, and only if there are no other glaring issues (which is not common).
Grammar is actually one of the things I enjoy explaining and I typically have to restrain myself a bit from addressing it. When students request only grammar help, I've had them diagram problem sentences to figure out how the sentences work together.
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