5 Easy Ways to Learn Grammar

For our first guest post, we’ve invited the good people at Grammarlogues, a software- and Web-based tool “founded on the premise that grammar matters most when it has meaning beyond a set of memorized rules,” to write about ways to use The Times to bring grammar lessons to life. Come tell us how you make grammar come alive

Grammar, Party of One

National Grammar Day. Three words that might elicit an even greater sigh than the term grammar itself.

The holiday conjures up images of celebrants frantically grabbing red pens and running through towns and cities, adding, crossing out, and otherwise correcting abuses of syntax and diction. Innocent passersby and unsuspecting onlookers are interrogated: True or false: You cannot end a sentence with a preposition. Infinitives should never be split. Passive voice is always wrong.

Let’s reclaim this national holiday right here and now. Boycott the red pen that ensnares us in syntactical games of right and wrong, and pick up a piece of literature, any piece of literature, and explore the English language with fresh eyes.

Consider the following five possibilities:

1. Variation Exploration

Reporters and editorial writers have one job in common: holding their readers’ interest. An essential tool for doing this is sentence variety, or using different sentence structures to avoid monotony.

The three-sentence paragraph below by Adam Liptak is a good example—he follows a simple sentence with a complex sentence, which he extends with two fairly hefty participial phrases, and he concludes the paragraph with a simple question:

Try this: Find one other example of sentence variety in a paragraph from an article in The Times that interests you. Analyze it as we did here to describe why it works. For more on complex sentences.

2. Punctuation Station

The Times is a one-stop shop for punctuation, with virtually every mark used in every issue.

In the sentence below, for instance, Jonah Lehrer uses a semicolon to separate two independent clauses. Are alternate punctuation marks possible? What would happen, for instance, if a comma were used instead?

there is no better model for the punctuation of dialogue than an article containing dialogue. The example below of an interrupted quote is a good demonstration:

Try this: Pick a type of punctuation mark, the semicolon for example, and scan an article to see where these are placed and how they are used. Then use one of those sentences as a model to try your own use of that mark. (And for more on semicolons)

3. Rule Breaker

You must understand the “rules” of grammar before you break them. If you read The Times regularly, you’ll see instances when writers intentionally break the “rules” to achieve a purpose. For example:

Is one of the sentences below a fragment? If so, what effect does it have on the article?

Why might a writer use a string of passive verbs in a particular sentence? In the following sentence, how do these passive constructions emphasize the topic?

Try this: How many Times sentences can you find that “break the rules”? Which work best? Why?

4. Sherlock Holmes

Incorporating quotations to support a thesis effectively and correctly is difficult, but journalists deal with this aspect of writing constantly, whether the text is a factual account or an opinion. Consider the indirect quote below from an article on the upcoming election in Iraq. Readers do not know whether these were Suliman’s exact words; however, the statement must accurately convey his thought:

Try this: You won’t have to read far to find examples in The Times of both direct and indirect quotations. Try conversion practice yourself by changing a direct quote into an indirect quote, following the punctuation approach you see in the Times article. For more on direct quotes,

5. Confusion Central

The best of us sometimes get tangled up in lengthy sentences, sidetracked by the ancillary ideas in subordinate clauses or prepositional phrases.

Take a sticky sentence apart in order to get to its core. For instance, the fundamental information in the sentence below about the actor Jeff Bridges is quite brief: Duane is the subject; set is the verb; the template is the direct object.