"at" at the e nd of a where phrase

[Patti Kurtz]

eulenbrg at U.WASHINGTON.EDU wrote:

> Perhaps she had the same school teachers that others of that
>generation did -- good handwriting and spelling and grammar skills drilled
>into them by a teacher who probably did no more than graduate from high
>school somewhere!
>
Julia:

Thanks for the earlier comments.  However, not to drag this out, but I
don't remember learning ANYTHING that helped me write in my "grammar"
classes (here meaning "prescriptive or school grammar, not descriptive
grammar or my linguistic classes).  In fact, I think I slept or doodled
through most of them.  The teachers who inspired me to write were the
ones who let me write-- who encouraged me to write-- and didn't try to
"correct" my grammar or make me do Reed Kellogg diagrams of sentences.
And I've found the same is true of my students-- the ones who say they
"can't" write are the ones whose papers have been shredded for grammar
mistakes by some teacher back in their past.  I usually spend about half
a semester encouraging these students that yes, they can write before
they start to believe it.

If your teacher was able to do both in a way that inspired you to write,
more power to her.  But I'd have to say my grammar knowledge came more
from reading and imitating than from any corrections any teacher did to
my papers.  And I'd have to admit I wasn't inspired to write by any
teacher who graded primarily on grammar or handwriting.

By the way, I believe the point being made in Ron's post is that "right"
and "wrong" in spoken English are relative, depending of course on which
dialect one speaks.

Patti

>
>

--

If  you write nothing, nothing is what you end up with!



Joseph Bruchac