Eight Grammar Survival Tricks
We are pleased to present these grammar tips shared by Tom Clements, an experienced instructor who has spent over 20 years tutoring for the SATs as well as calculus, physics and chemistry. He is a former Silicon Valley freelance writer for tech magazines, corporate trainer for international bankers, and college English teacher. Clements' new book, How to Write a KILLER SAT Essay...in 25 Minutes or Less! is available for purchase at Amazon.com
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In American education, particularly at the high school level, grammar is a lost art. The closest most high school students get to any real appreciation of syntax is by studying a foreign language like Spanish, where the subjunctive, for example, is used extensively. Mark Twain famously said, "Damn the subjunctive. It brings all our writers to shame."
Facetious or not, Twain has had a lot of company over the years as a grammar-hater. This is true not only of the man on the street -- or the typical high school student -- but also English teachers, most of whom avoid the topic like the plague. High school kids are pretty much left to their own devices when it comes to parsing parts of speech. As a consequence, most don't know a diphthong from a dangling participle.
In American education, particularly at the high school level, grammar is a lost art. The closest most high school students get to any real appreciation of syntax is by studying a foreign language like Spanish, where the subjunctive, for example, is used extensively. Mark Twain famously said, "Damn the subjunctive. It brings all our writers to shame."
Facetious or not, Twain has had a lot of company over the years as a grammar-hater. This is true not only of the man on the street -- or the typical high school student -- but also English teachers, most of whom avoid the topic like the plague. High school kids are pretty much left to their own devices when it comes to parsing parts of speech. As a consequence, most don't know a diphthong from a dangling participle.
