hopefully

[Amy West]

On 4/8/12 12:00 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
> Date:    Sat, 7 Apr 2012 11:02:21 -0800
> From:    David Bowie<db.list at PMPKN.NET>
> Subject: Re: hopefully
>
> From:    Amy West<medievalist at W-STS.COM>
>
>> >  Prescriptivism is easier for students: they want to know the rules to
>> >  apply. They want them to be simple rules.
>> >  I had my comp. students read Nunberg's "The Decline of English" (they
>> >  all thought he was arguing that English grammar is declining)...
> I've found David Crystal's_The Fight for English_  to be quite useful in
> pointing out some of the problems with a straight-up prescriptivist
> approach—and also how taking a descriptivist approach doesn't necessarily
> exclude/belittle the usefulness of having conventionalized rules for
> formal writing. It's quite readable by non-specialists, and has proven to
> be a big hit in my syntax lite for aspiring English teachers course.
>
> <snip>
>
> Very truly yours,
> David Bowie

I also liked that book very much. I'm very glad to hear that you're
making good use of it. I teach primarily Comp. II which is Academic
Writing, so I've been trying to use readings that use formal
documentation, make academic rhetorical moves, etc. I thought the _The
Fight for Engish_ too general and accessible for my purposes, but maybe
I should re-examine using it.

--
---Amy West

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