ENGL 3046 – Modern English Grammar at the University of Cincinnati | Coursicle UC

Description

This course is designed to make learning grammar interesting and even enjoyable. The main purpose of this class is to help students improve their command of English grammar to become more knowledgeable language users, more accomplished speakers, and more effective writers. We will begin by examining the basic sentence elements of subject, verb, object, adjective, and adverb. We will then study larger issues of sentence structure, phrases, clauses, and the many subtleties of sentence embedding. We will work as language learners, deriving the rules of English inductively from data—rather than deductively from time-honored concepts that in many cases don’t hold up to close scrutiny. Our data will include sentences from a variety of contexts: literary works, academic journals, bureaucrats’ memos and reports, students’ own writing, as well as everyday speech. Each week, we will work on issues of grammar, punctuation, and style in writing. Students preparing to be English/Language Arts teachers will have an opportunity to examine the role of grammar instruction in the classroom.