Boy, do I agree. I agree so much that I wrote an article on how to use principles of linguistics (the dreaded "Grammar" among them) to students in high school English classes, and have begun a blog <a href="http://www.linguisticsintheclassroom.com">http://www.linguisticsintheclassroom.com</a> which contains short exercises and explanations to be sprinkled into high school classes, giving them at least a rudimentary idea of how language is constructed, how meaning is made, and what the role of language is in our lives. As a professor teaching the required freshman writing class, I see the results of our avoidance of teaching commas and all the rest of grammar all the time. My own students love to learn such things.<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, May 14, 2011 at 4:48 PM, Dennis Baron <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:debaron@illinois.edu">debaron@illinois.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div style="word-wrap:break-word">There's a new post on the Web of Language: <div><br></div><div>Teaching commas won't help</div><div><span style="font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10px"><p>
<font size="3"><span style="font-size:12px">A new rant in </span></font><a href="http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/05/10/death_to_high_school_english/index.html" target="_blank"><font size="3"><span style="font-size:12px">Salon</span></font></a><font size="3"><span style="font-size:12px"> by Kim Brooks complains, “My college students don't understand commas, far less how to write an essay,” and asks the perennial question, “Is it time to rethink how we teach?”</span></font></p>
<p><font size="3"><span style="font-size:12px">While it’s always time to rethink how we teach, teaching commas won’t help.</span></font></p><p><font size="3"><span style="font-size:12px">Teachers like Brooks commonly elevate the lowly comma to a position of singular importance. But documents in which a misplaced comma can mean life or death, or at least the difference between a straightforward contract and a legal nightmare of </span></font><em><font size="3"><span style="font-size:12px">Bleak House</span></font></em><font size="3"><span style="font-size:12px"> proportions, are myths, just like the one that says Eskimo has twenty-three words for snow (twenty-eight? forty-five?). More to the point: understanding commas does not guarantee competent writing. . . .</span></font></p>
<div><font size="3"><span style="font-size:12px"><br></span></font></div><div><font size="3"><span style="font-size:12px">Read the rest of this exciting post on the Web of Language:</span></font></div></span></div><div><p>
<a href="http://j.mp/lliFNk" target="_blank">http://j.mp/lliFNk</a></p>
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<span style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word">
<span style="border-collapse:separate;color:rgb(0, 0, 0);font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px"><div style="word-wrap:break-word">
<div>____________________</div><div><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:14px"><span style="font-size:12px"><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;font-size:12px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">Dennis Baron</font></div>
<div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;font-size:12px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">Professor of English and Linguistics</font></div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;font-size:12px">
<font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">Department of English<span> </span><span> </span></font></div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;font-size:12px">
<font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">University of Illinois<span> </span></font></div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;font-size:12px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">608 S. Wright St.</font></div>
<div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;font-size:12px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12px">Urbana, IL 61801 </font></div>
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<font face="Helvetica">office: <a href="tel:217-244-0568" value="+12172440568" target="_blank">217-244-0568</a></font><font face="Helvetica"></font></div><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;font-size:12px">
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</font></div></span><div style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px"><font color="#0000EE" size="3"><span style="font-size:12px;text-decoration:underline"><span style="color:rgb(72, 72, 72);font-size:11px"><a href="http://illinois.edu/goto/debaron" title="My faculty home page" style="margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;color:rgb(0, 0, 128);text-decoration:none" target="_blank">http://www.illinois.edu/goto/debaron</a></span></span></font></div>
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