Chapter 13 Punctuation: Its Purposes
and Its Rhetorical Effects 42
Answers to the Exercises 44
,Introduction
The purpose of Rhetorical Grammar: Grammatical Choices; Rhetorical Effects is to demonstrate
how the conscious knowledge of grammar provides the tools that can help writers accomplish
their goals. The epigraph that opens Part I speaks to the importance to the writer of
understanding “what language can and will do”—in other words, of knowing what the tools are
and knowing how to use them.
Many students in your classes will be learning about the structure of language for the first time.
Grammar lessons in writing classes have often been limited to mechanics and error correction.
Chapter 1, “A Review of Words and Phrases,” will be especially helpful for those first–timers.
A point we cannot emphasize too strongly is the importance of learning to read critically. In the
opening of Part I we ask the students to “filter” what they are reading through their own
understanding. The metaphor of the sponge and the filter (from Asking the Right Questions by
M. Neil Browne and Stuart M. Keeley [11 ed., Longman, 2014]) is extremely apt, given the fact
that in reading about grammar the students are reading about something they are experts in,
albeit subconscious experts. The “sponge” readers—most of our students—highlight and
underline as they try to understand, and, yes, they memorize. The “filter” readers interact with
the text, looking for logical steps, identifying problems, asking questions—filtering the material
through their own experience and understanding, their own long experience as language users.
The material in Chapter 1—where the students will encounter both familiar and new
terminology—is especially conducive to the filtering process.
Rhetorical Grammar is designed for use as the main text in a course on grammar or as an
ancillary text in a composition course. If you are using it in a grammar course, consider asking
students to do some writing as well. By applying what they’ve learned to their own prose,
students will actually be testing their understanding of the material you’ve covered in class. For
many, the study of grammar from a rhetorical perspective will be a discovery process, a
consciousness–raising that makes an appreciable difference in their writing. You can even
expect some of your students to be enthusiastic!
One way to incorporate the lessons of Rhetorical Grammar into a composition course is to
schedule, perhaps on a given day each week, a discussion of the reading assignment. If you use a
reader in your writing class, you could certainly relate the grammatical principles covered to the
essay selections the students are reading. Those essays could also provide follow–up material for
some of the exercises.
1
, Another method is to use the material in the assigned readings as subject matter for small–group
sessions, incorporating the various rhetorical principles into the goals of the peer–review
meetings. In the draft–review sessions you might focus, for example, on the chapter–end
Rhetorical Reminders, after having assigned the chapter. We all recognize that the more concrete
and focused the goals for peer–review sessions are, the more successful our students will be.
You’ll also find the text extremely useful as a revision guide in your own work with students’
papers. Because the explanations are focused on rhetorical principles, you can key your
comments and suggestions to specific sections of the text. The Reference Guide will be
especially important in this regard. If you’re a new teacher of writing, new to the job of making
judgments and commenting, Rhetorical Grammar will be a valuable learning tool in helping you
provide your students with instructive feedback.
No matter how you decide to incorporate Rhetorical Grammar, you’ll discover that having a
textbook with thorough explanations and exercises for self-study will enable you to offer useful
guidance on sentence and paragraph structure without substantial preparation time on your part.
The discussions that follow in this Instructor’s Manual include suggestions for incorporating the
principles of rhetorical grammar into your course, along with further background on many of
these. Each chapter ends with commentary on the “For Group Discussion” topics, taken up in the
order in which they appear in the text. The last section provides answers to the even–numbered
exercise items (answers to the odd–numbered items are included in the text itself).
2
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