Grammar Workshop (355:090)
Overview:
The Grammar Workshop helps students improve their grammar in written English while developing
other skills of writing at the college level, including organization, paragraph coherence, concise writing,
and sentence clarity.
Who can register:
Any student currently enrolled in a 355 or 356 course. The course is especially recommended for
students with second language learning and grammar issues.
The structure of the workshops:
The workshop is typically taught in two parts—about 40 minutes in the classroom, followed by writing
practice in the computer lab (40 min.). The shared classroom time establishes a topic for the workshop,
as well as strategies for dealing with a particular error. Here is the structure of a typical workshop:
1. Instructor’s introduction of a grammar topic with examples on board or handouts: 15 min.
2. Class discussion of related errors in students’ writing. Students suggest corrections to sentences
collected typically from students’ own papers. 25 min.
3. Computer lab for additional practice or paired activities using online resources and interactive
exercises, and work on the students’ own papers in response to comments received from the
instructor—see note (40 min.)
Note: In addition to the time spent in the workshop itself, students get reinforcement of the material
and individualized attention to their particular problems in writing from the instructor outside of class.
14-week class plan
Class 1: Introduction
Week 1
Introduction to the workshop, general discussion of writing problems, short writing sample
submitted.
Week 2
Class 2: Correctness and Style
Grammar: finding subject and verb, subject-verb agreement
Exercise in keeping items parallel.
Discussion: what is good writing? Grammatical correctness, style and aesthetics in writing.
Class 3: The English Sentence
Week 3
In class discussion: types of sentences; identifying clauses and phrases; co-ordination and
subordination;
In class exercise putting together simple, short sentences into compound, complex, or
compound-complex sentences.
Computer Lab: Online grammar resources introduced;
Combining sentences continued: tutorial and interactive exercise using
grammar.ccc.commnet.edu site
Class 4: Organizing Ideas in Writing
Week 4
Class discussion of the topic sentence. An example discussed.
Computer Lab: Pronoun agreement tutorial and interactive quiz;
Students work on revising their papers based on comments received this week.
Class 5: Problems with Pronouns
Week 5
Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement and Clarity of Reference.
Repairing run-ons
THAT—WHICH—WHO clauses
Error Logs (or grammar journal) discussed as ways to keep track of and learn about one’s
errors
In class: Examining Unclear pronouns in student writing (examples from student papers):
Discussion and revision exercise
Computer Lab: Partnered Activities
Class 6: Usage
Week 6
In class: Exercise on refining vocabulary choices and correcting usage problems.
Computer Lab: Usage problems continued. Using online resources to learn more about the
problematic vocabulary choices or usage errors marked in students’ own writing submitted
into the dropbox this week.
Link to “Building a Better Vocabulary”
Class 7: Grammar and Style
Week 7
ESL issues: articles, countable and non-countable nouns and errors in number—singular
versus plural. Articles.
Computer Lab: Review of various rules guiding the use of articles using the Purdue Online
Class 8: Punctuation problems
Week 8
Review of some rules regarding comma use, colon use, semicolon use, and dash.
Quotations use discussed in relation to common punctuation problems.
Part 2 of Combining Sentences Skills and Phrases
Week 9
The Garden of Phrases--Learning about Various Ways of Incorporating Information into the
Sentence
Addressing problems with modifying phrases and clauses (modifier problems, such as the
dangling modifier)
Week 10
Class 10: Passive and Active Voice: Discussion, Examples, Practice
Switching from passive to active voice, and discussion of examples where passive mode
may be desirable. Eliminating unnecessary shifts from passive and active.
Class 11: Paragraph Coherence
Week 11
Discussion of Paragraph Unity and Coherence. Transitions and other strategies of
coherence (repetition, pronouns, parallelism).
Class 12: Preposition errors; phrasal verbs. (ESL)
Week 12
Review of common and idiomatic features of the use of prepositions of place and time.
Strategies for dealing with propositional errors. Discussion of phrasal verbs (separable,
inseparable, transitive, intransitive).
Class 13: Revision and Proofreading Guidelines.
Week 13
Conditional verb forms.
Polishing a single paragraph: Proofreading session in the lab.
Class 14: Last Workshop
Week 14
Review and grammar games