Contribution to Book
Digital Diagramming Word Doc.pdf
Practical Composition: Classroom Exercises for the Composition Instructor.
(2014)
Abstract
With the move away from formal grammatical instruction in many US primary and
secondary schools over the past thirty years, college writing teachers often find
themselves dealing with student papers riddled with basic syntactic errors. Sentence
diagramming, which requires students to parse a sentence into its most basic components,
provides a method to assist students in mastering syntactic fundamentals.
The following exercise adapts this old pedagogy of diagramming sentences to a new
technology, Prezi presentation software, in the hopes of increasing student
comprehension of writing basics. Diagramming sentences, whether one is familiar with
the rocket, tree, or another diagramming process, is a proven pedagogy that helps
students sharpen their analytical skills. Martha Kolln and Robert Funk provide a rich
portrait of traditional sentence diagramming in their textbook Understanding English
Grammar (9th edition). That text provided the initial inspiration to adapt this established
pedagogy for our contemporary digital environment.
Keywords
- Syntax,
- Sentence Diagramming,
- Composition
Disciplines
Publication Date
2014
Publisher
Macmillan
Citation Information
“Digital Diagramming” in Practical Composition: Classroom Exercises for the Composition Instructor. MacMillan. Oxford. 2014.