Grammar vis-a-vis Style

One is hard-pressed to find a curriculum better than the Shurley Grammar Method for teaching the principal parts of speech and the basic mechanics of grammar. The art of writing well, however, consists in something more than learning the rules of grammar and punctuation.

At the risk of minimalizing a couple of noteworthy programs, I believe Andrew Pudewa's Institute for Excellence in Writing does well in teaching students how to summarize what they read and to be economical in the use of words (unlike this sentence). I think the strength of Andrew Kern's The Lost Tools of Writing does as much for getting students to think as it does to write.

Now it may be that I am not sufficiently acquainted with those programs -- and for that reason I do not mean by this brief blog to give them short-shrift -- but so far, they do not seem to address writing style in the way that I imagine it. The problem is, at this point, I do not have any other comprehensive program to recommend. I have a full-shelf-a-half of books and texts from which I pick this and that.

I like a number of the exercises in Holt, Rhinehart and Winston's "Elements of Language" (there are several levels -- for the sake of discussion, check out Sentences and Paragraphs, ISBN 0030563143 and Combining Sentences ISBN 0030563062). If you are on a budget, check out a used textbook company like Follett.

I also like Richard Nordquist's work in Passages: a Writer's Guide (ISBN 9780312101176) and Writing Exercises: Building, Combining, and Revising (ISBN 9780023882203). Again, if on a tight budget, these can be acquired as used copies from Amazon or alibris. I have enjoyed his grammar website for years, though he stopped serving as the site's editor in 2016.

Ever on the lookout for helpful material, I just ordered June Casagrande's It Was the Best of Sentences; It Was the Worst of Sentences: a Writer's Guide to Crafting Killer Sentences (ISBN 978-1580087407). Check out her website: Grammar Underground.

There are, of course, those who want to throw out grammar rules and stylistic conventions altogether -- and one can find their "creative" approaches in many places. It is not a bad idea to become familiar with them as long as one does so without swalloing hook, line, and sinker.