Grammar Project Notes
THIS WEEK
1. Introduction to the Grammar Project
26th of MARCH (just before Easter)
2. Hand in First draft
MAY 7
3. Hand in FINAL draft
What is the grammar project?
 The Grammar project is an exercise in academic writing in which you are expected to
show that you can analyse grammatical features in a text and discuss their relevance
in that text by explaining how they relate to the text functions.
 The grammar project should show not only what grammar you know, but what you can
do with that knowledge of grammar in the practical analysis of texts.
 So, analysis of a single text
 One grammatical feature, or a family of related features (e.g., Mood)
What is the grammar project not?
 The Grammar project is not an essay on a grammatical feature such as the Noun
Phrase, or Modal verbs.
 It is not a summary of the description of features such as in a grammar book, although
you will have to make brief descriptions of the features you will be analysing.
What do I write about?
 Two approaches:
 Choose a text you like and then go on to identify in it relevant grammatical features:
 Choose a specific grammatical feature and then try to find a text which has those
features.
What text do I use?
 The text should be long enough to provide enough examples of the grammatical features
you want to discuss.
 Don’t make it too long (1-2 pages is ideal).
 Do not choose literary texts
 Choose only contemporary English texts (e.g., advertisements, travel brochures, news
articles, webpages, etc.)
What Features do I study?
 The grammatical feature or features should be such that you can make a connection
between the grammatical features and the type of the text (the ‘text function’). You should
be able to answer questions such as: why is this particular grammatical point relevant in
this text? Why did the author select it from all the other grammatical choices? How does it
help to develop the author's point of view?
Text functions? What are they?
 The function of a text: what the author is trying to do by writing the text: to describe
something, to persuade, to explain, to narrate events…
Examples 1:
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Text Type: A written narrative (short)
Grammatical Feature(s): tense
Description of Grammar: outline the English tense system (or at least those tenses
relevant to your study)
Grammatical Analysis: analyse the tense choices made throughout the text.
Relate to the text functions: show how the narrative is structured by the tenses used in
the narrative, e.g., a sequence of past tenses to represent sequential events.
Examples 2:
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Text Type: Descriptive text
Grammatical Feature(s): noun phrases and noun modifiers
Description of Grammar: outline the structure of the noun phrase
Grammatical Analysis: analyse the structure of the noun phrases within the description.
Relate to the text functions: analyse a descriptive text by looking at what the modifiers
of nouns contribute to the function of ‘description’.
The Work:
 Make sure you understand what kind of project you are asked to write (read the Grammar
Project GUIDELINES).
 We recommend you work in pairs. With permission, you can work alone.
 Choose a grammatical feature and a text.
 Write the draft.
 Give a printed copy of your draft to your teacher (or drop off at their office).