Background: Recent research has documented individual differences in the reading profiles of skilled native English readers using a behavioural marker of holistic visual word processing (orientation sensitivity). A more holistic word reading profile is associated with a weaker correlation with phonological decoding for word identification.…

Writing and writing clearly is a highly complex activity that requires the coordination of several processes and subprocesses for it to be effective and purposeful. Across those demands, syntax and the ability to express ideas with clarity can significantly affect a writer's ability to communicate (Berninger, Nagy, & Beers, 2011) and the…

The term "clause" is not only applied to structures which comply with formal prerequisites, containing a subject and a predicate conveyed by a finite verb, but also to such structures which are analysable into clause elements. The verbless clause is a structure containing no verb element at all (either finite or nonfinite), usually…

This article investigates the lexical and discourse features of English text and discourse with automated computer technologies. Specifically, this article examines the cohesion of English text and discourse with automated computer tools, Coh-Metrix and TEES. Coh-Metrix is a text analysis computer tool that can analyze English text and discourse…

The purpose of this study was to research whether or not the intervention of the Reed & Kellogg System of sentence diagramming would make a significant difference in the acquisition, retention, and comprehension of the basic grammatical skills, including parts of speech, complements, phrases, clauses, and sentence structures, on the higher…

Today, when the author reads articles or hears discussions about teaching grammar, she finds interesting dichotomies in perspectives. Some people see language issues as right or wrong: That's it. No flexibility. This perspective is evident when people look at issues of language in stark contrasts instead of in relation to context. Another…

When being a student in grade school as well as in high school (1934-1946), grammar was heavily emphasized in English/language arts classes, particularly in grades four through the senior year in high school. Evidently, teachers and school administrators then saw a theoretical way to assist pupils in writing achievement. Grammar and writing were…

This work focuses on the licensing conditions and logical structure of understood-argument constructions, or complement-drop constructions, in English. There are two main types of such arguments: Indefinite Understood Arguments (IUA) and Definite Understood Arguments (DUA). IUA readings occur in such cases in "He ate, He cooked". In such cases,…

Say "sentence diagramming" to people of a certain age, and one gets different reactions. Say it to most college students, and one gets a blank look. But not from the 24 students in Lucy Ferriss's "Constructing Thought," a half-credit course in the English department at Trinity College. They know how to diagram a sentence--and…

The number of native Arabic-speaking students coming to America to study English in university programs has grown over the past few years, and continues to be substantial. It has also been noticed by the English Language Institute (ELI) at Sam Houston State University (SHSU) that these students often struggle more with reading activities in class,…

This study aims at arousing college students' metacognition in detecting lexical cohesion during online text construction as WordNet served as a lexical resource. A total of 83 students were requested to construct texts through sequences of actions identified as interaction chains in this study. Interaction chains are grouped and categorized as a…

Offers exercises designed to teach college freshmen the characteristics of the participial modifier. The exercises are based on a form of programed teaching that involves a high degree of student involvement, repeatedly presenting students with a stimulus, and asking for a quick, patterned response. (FL)

Discusses and illustrates three rule sets suitable for presenting generative grammar to beginners; and appendix to the author's article with the same title in the February 1970 (No. 13) issue, pp. 39-53; see TE 200 767. (Editor/SW)

Recommends a return to the traditional approach of studying grammar via sentence diagraming. (SW)

A study of the use of sentence fragments in 50 books and magazines suggests that the term "fragment" should be redefined to include "broken sentences" (always an error) and "minor sentences" (acceptable in any student writing). (DD)