The Place of Grammar in Writing Instruction: Past, Present, Future

In this book, the crucial questions about the place of grammar in the writing classroom are asked and answered. Teachers and researchers explore the role of grammar in the teaching of writing and describe ways that grammar instruction has been, is, and should be used in our writing programs. The contributors share their insights from a variety of perspectives: as college composition teachers, as writing center directors, as rhetoricians, as students, and as writers themselves. They are not grammarians in the conventional sense. Rather, they are voices from various writing settings who show college writing teachers how to reconnect writing and grammar.

Divided into three sections, the book allows for a progressive observation of the places of grammar in writing instruction. In the section on past attitudes toward grammar instruction, the contributors discuss the history of teaching grammar as it relates to teaching writing. In the section on present concerns, contributors re-evaluate the belief that little grammar instruction is needed to teach writing. In the final section, contributors evaluate what we have learned with a view to what we need to learn or teach the next generation of writing teachers about the role of grammar.