Conjunctions and connectivity
Ideas in texts are developed through logical linkages among words, phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs and chapters. Without conjunctions and connectives, complex relationships among ideas…
Expand your knowledge of literacy education theory and techniques. This in-depth series of articles covers a range of teaching topics including grammar, punctuation, spelling and writing.
Ideas in texts are developed through logical linkages among words, phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs and chapters. Without conjunctions and connectives, complex relationships among ideas…
Prepositions, as a word class, are relatively simple words. The most common prepositions are single words (at, in, on, to); modern grammars also recognise…
When adjectives and adverbs were invented deep in the origins of language, it must have been like the introduction of sound and colour to movies…
Verbs are ‘doing words’? Unfortunately this simplification fails to describe the verbal functions frequently used by literary heroes of the English language. Where is the ‘doing’ in “To be, or not to be: that is the question”…
Naming is possibly the most fundamental function of language. Modern humans have demonstrated a talent for inventing words to name anything – objects, places and ideas…
School grammar textbooks tend to be dogmatic on the question of what makes a sentence – linguists over the years have not been so prescriptive…Henry Fowler (1858–1933), defined a sentence as…
The word text originally referred to “words woven to make meaning?. Meaningful text usually consists of written works that achieve a purpose in communication…
Using textbooks to teach rigid rules of English grammar dates back to 1762. This article draws a distinction between old and new understandings about how to make grammar make sense to students…