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5 Easy Ways to Learn Grammar With The

New York Times
By Katherine Schulten March 4, 2010 6:59 am

For our first guest post, we’ve invited the good people at Grammarlogues, a
software- and Web-based tool “founded on the premise that grammar matters most
when it has meaning beyond a set of memorized rules,” to write about ways to use
The Times to bring grammar lessons to life. Come tell us how you make grammar
come alive, below!

Grammar, Party of One

By Danielle Hoagland and Judith McCaffrey for Grammarlogues.com

National Grammar Day. Three words that might elicit an even greater sigh than
the term grammar itself.

The holiday conjures up images of celebrants frantically grabbing red pens and
running through towns and cities, adding, crossing out, and otherwise correcting
abuses of syntax and diction. Innocent passersby and unsuspecting onlookers are
interrogated: True or false: You cannot end a sentence with a preposition. Infinitives
should never be split. Passive voice is always wrong.

Let’s reclaim this national holiday right here and now. Boycott the red pen that
ensnares us in syntactical games of right and wrong, and pick up a piece of literature,
any piece of literature, and explore the English language with fresh eyes.

Or just read The New York Times, which provides a panoply of grammar
concepts that rivals any handbook. Consider the following five possibilities:

1. Variation Exploration

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Reporters and editorial writers have one job in common: holding their readers’
interest. An essential tool for doing this is sentence variety, or using different
sentence structures to avoid monotony.

The three-sentence paragraph below by Adam Liptak is a good example—he

follows a simple sentence with a complex sentence, which he extends with two fairly
hefty participial phrases, and he concludes the paragraph with a simple question:

“The proposed trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed in Manhattan

presented perhaps the most extreme example of this conundrum. Had the
trial proceeded there, a change of venue motion based on local news
coverage and community outrage was almost inevitable, given Mr.
Mohammed’s confession to planning the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But would
that intensity of feeling be any less anywhere else in the United States?”
— “Finding Untainted Jurors in the Age of the Internet”

Try this: Find one other example of sentence variety in a paragraph from an
article in The Times that interests you. Analyze it as we did here to describe why it
works. For more on complex sentences, click here.

2. Punctuation Station
The Times is a one-stop shop for punctuation, with virtually every mark used in
every issue.

In the sentence below, for instance, Jonah Lehrer uses a semicolon to separate
two independent clauses. Are alternate punctuation marks possible? What would
happen, for instance, if a comma were used instead?

Darwin, of course, was wrong; his recurring fits didn’t prevent him from
succeeding in science.
— “Want a Better Listener? Protect Those Ears”

There is no better model for the punctuation of dialogue than an article

containing dialogue. The example below of an interrupted quote is a good
demonstration:

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“We need to look at noise as something that is dangerous,” Ms. Nadler

said, “like sharp tools or a hot stove.”
— “Depression’s Upside”

Try this: Pick a type of punctuation mark, the semicolon for example, and scan
an article to see where these are placed and how they are used. Then use one of those
sentences as a model to try your own use of that mark. (And for more on semicolons,
click here.)

3. Rule Breaker
You must understand the “rules” of grammar before you break them. If you read
The Times regularly, you’ll see instances when writers intentionally break the “rules”
to achieve a purpose. For example:

Is one of the sentences below a fragment? If so, what effect does it have on the
article?

“Then came overtime. Pressure anyone?”

— “Crosby’s Goal Ends Thriller as Canada Beats U.S.”

Does the following sentence end in a preposition, and if so, is this the only way
to express the idea? For the answer, click here.

“The Knicks (20-39) have lost 10 of their last 11 games and have 23
games left to muddle through.”
— “James Shows Knicks Just Why He Is Their Fondest Wish”

Why might a writer use a string of passive verbs in a particular sentence? In the
following sentence, how do these passive constructions emphasize the topic?

“The roles of most of the 20,000 or so genes in the human genome are
still poorly understood, but all can be assigned to broad categories of likely
function depending on the physical structure of the protein they specify.”
— “Human Culture, an Evolutionary Force”

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Try this: How many Times sentences can you find that “break the rules”?
Which work best? Why?

4. Sherlock Holmes
Incorporating quotations to support a thesis effectively and correctly is difficult,
but journalists deal with this aspect of writing constantly, whether the text is a
factual account or an opinion. Consider the indirect quote below from an article on
the upcoming election in Iraq. Readers do not know whether these were Suliman’s
exact words; however, the statement must accurately convey his thought:

“His most prominent Sunni ally, Sheik Ali Hatam al-Ali Suliman, said
the voting bloc he represented in Anbar would never vote directly for Mr.
Maliki.”
— “Vote Seen as Pivotal Test for Both Iraq and Maliki”

Try this: You won’t have to read far to find examples in The Times of both
direct and indirect quotations. Try conversion practice yourself by changing a direct
quote into an indirect quote, following the punctuation approach you see in the
Times article. For more on direct quotes, click here.

5. Confusion Central
The best of us sometimes get tangled up in lengthy sentences, sidetracked by the
ancillary ideas in subordinate clauses or prepositional phrases.

Take a sticky sentence apart in order to get to its core. For instance, the
fundamental information in the sentence below about the actor Jeff Bridges is quite
brief: Duane is the subject; set is the verb; the template is the direct object.

“Wounded, a little lost, Duane set the template for a Bridges type who
was down on his luck and maybe skimming bottom, at times with a smile
that looked far too innocent for an actor who soon made a habit of quietly
taking over his films.”
— “The Dude Plumbs His Weary Soul”

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Try this: Choose your own sticky Times sentence, then remove (or bracket)
prepositional phrases, appositives, verbal phrases, and dependent clauses to uncover
the heart of the sentence and therefore its essential meaning. For more on
dependent clauses, click here.

For more grammar ideas, lesson plans and exercises, visit Grammarlogues.com.

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