Jolley 1

Laney Jolley
Writing Composition
Frost
1 December 2014
Balancing the Scales:
How Content and Grammar Coexist
Introduction
Growing up I always loved reading and writing. From early on I was encouraged and led
to believe that I wrote well for my age, sometimes better. I also always did really well on
grammar tests and worksheets. I could write and I could point out the various uses of the
mechanics, but as time went on, I found it more and more difficult to couple these two concepts
together. I knew how to fill in a blank on who or whom, and I knew how to express my ideas,
but I always saw these little read marks all over my papers. Alongside the grammar mistakes,
there were also the grammarian standards of what you can and cannot put in a school essay.
You write well, but you have too many comma splices. Great paper! However, you used the
word you twice, so I can only give you a B. When I was in college, I was lucky that I had
grammar nazi friends that would review my papers and find these tiny mistakes. When hired
into the English Writing lab, I was now the one who was looking for other students mistakes.
I found myself with a red pen, placing commas everywhere, writing Dont use I in academic
writing, SENTENCE FRAG and other ghastly criticisms graced the papers. When students
would ask why, I could sometimes reach for a grammar book or look it up quickly to explain, but
most ofthe time I would just say The professor will count off. I found myself actively
participating in this strict grammar academia cult that I had despised for so long. During my
Modern Grammar class, we read a passage that said something to the effect that the whole reason

Jolley 2
for grammar is for each person to be able to present his or her ideas in a clear manner. Basically,
if the grammar is in such a way that the writer is understood, then the nit picky things dont
matter.
This leads me to my problem: where do we draw the line? How are teachers doing this
already? Originally I thought I would find that the problem with content would be that during
assessment, teachers spent too much time digging for grammatical errors. However, a bigger
problem was found: both content and grammar were suffering due to traditional teaching
methods. Through my research and interviews, I found that one of the best ways to bridge the
gap between grammar and content is through student/teacher revision. Grammar practices alone
do not improve writing, but correction by teachers in the form of paper revision allows for
students to write clear and engaging content with the opportunity to fix grammar issues as they
go.
For my research question, I focused on how mechanical errors can overshadow rhetoric
and content. When teaching writing, where do they teachers emphasis lie, and how can we
balance these components of writing? Though personal experience had made me wary of
grammar in general, there is no denying that basic grammar skills are needed to write. Grammar
is essentially a system set up in order for us to communicate with each other through the written
form. Without the system, the content can become unclear. I was then resolved to figure out how
to see what teachers were doing to improve both grammar and content in students writing.

Methodology
For my research, I interviewed three different teachers who have worked with middle school,
high school, and college students. I compiled a list of general/open ended questions and emailed
the questions to the teachers. The questions concerned their teaching style when it comes to both

Jolley 3
grammar and writing content, and how they balance the two. After receiving the questions back
from the teachers, I compiled the information and came up with a summary.
Additionally, I used secondary sources as a method of researching my question. I
reviewed peer reviewed journals and books from various scholars to learn about similar issues in
the writing process. I was able to research scholars and studies which had to do with
implementing grammar into writing practices within the classroom, and was then able to
compare this secondary research with my primary findings.

Interview/Findings
I interviewed three teachers, asking them general questions about how they incorporate
both grammar and content in their classrooms1:
Cady Heron, English Language Arts teacher, 9th Grade. Former English Comp teacher through
the Auburn GTA program.
Regina George, 7th Grade English teacher
Janis Ian , 7th-9th Grade.
The following is a choice selection of the questions asked:

How important has grammar been in your own life and education?
C: I think that grammar has been very important although I did not realize this always. I felt
confident using grammar in my speech and writing in my later high school years/early college
years because I had picked it up from my teachers and lessons in elementary/middle school. This
"naturalness" that I came to feel in using correct grammar helped me focus more on developing

Actual names of participants have been changed.

Jolley 4
content/ideas in my writing in high school/college and so probably has had a lot to do with me
enjoying writing, etc.
R: Grammar has been essential for me in education and life in general. From writing essays in
college to writing cover letters, resumes, and e-mails for my current employer it has been
extremely important that I present myself well through written word.
Was it easy for you to retain grammar skills, or troublesome?
C: It was honestly pretty easy for me.
R:It has always been somewhat natural for me to retain these skills.
How much emphasis is placed on strictly grammar practices in your classroom?
C: I teach English L Arts, so I am responsible for teaching literature, grammar, vocabulary, and
writing. Honestly, my English department had decided, for this first part of the year at least, to
focus mainly on teaching grammar and literature explicitly during the majority of class time. For
example, I typically have a 20 minute grammar lesson/practice time at the start of class and then
go into reading our novel for literature for the last 30 minutes.
R: In my classroom my first year of teaching, I placed a huge emphasis on grammar. It became
evident very quickly that the students hated the drudgery of Grammar exercises. Not only this,
but also how far behind they were was troublesome. This year, all of the English teachers began
a program called Daily Grammar Practice in an attempt to play catch up, and to teach grammar
in a new way.
Are the students able to use these grammar skills in their writing?
C: This is a GREAT question. In theory, I should be having students practice using grammar
knowledge in their writing regularly..in practice, I'm finding it hard to do thiswith so many
things I would need to read over and grade. What I do is try and limit my grammar pickiness to
the part of class/assignments we are doing in class to explicitly practice grammar. For example, I
see if students can find adjectives and adverbs in sentences on a grammar quiz and before this as

Jolley 5
we practice this individually/as a class.but I do not correct their misuse of adjectives in their
double-entry journal writing. It is just too much for me to catch all of this in their writing at this
point and I'm afraid would discourage them from the point of that writing activity: to engage
with the novel we are reading. But, I do think there is a need to have them USE their grammar
knowledge/practice it in writing so I can see how well they can use it. Basically, they need more
than a grammar quiz to prove they have adjectives down patand I'm still trying to find ways to
have them practice their grammar knowledge in writing in a way that is manageable for me to
grade.
R: Getting my students to transfer proper grammar into their writing is a huge struggle.
Do you ever have students who do well on grammar tests/drills, yet are unable to translate
this in their writing?
C: I would say definitely.
R: Yes, it almost seems as if some of the students do not proof read anything they writing even
though I know they do. However, the students who do well on grammar tests, even if they dont
transfer it all, do much better than the students who do poorly on grammar tests/drills.
Do you have students that have clear content, but have trouble with grammar rules?
C: Yes, I notice things like subject-verb agreement (She say she is here)where I totally get
their idea but there is an error. Again, this is something I should make note of and address with
them as a class during grammar lessons in the future.but I just don't feel I can correct them or
count off points in their writing for literature because this skill has not been taught in my
grammar class yet and it's not the point of the literature assignment.
R: Yes, many students that write a great paper but struggle with things like comma usage, run-on
sentences, fragments, etc.
Do you ever practice student/teacher revision?
C: *See previous answernot too much yet.

Jolley 6
R: Yes, I work with a lot of my students one on one with their essays during the revision process.
This makes it easier for me to understand their thought process while writing.
In your personal teaching pedagogy, do you find content to be more important than
grammar? Vis Versa?
C: This is a good question. Right now, I want my students to be able to communicate in writing
in a way that gets their basic point across as clearly as possible. In other words, when a student's
main idea/message is lost because of terrible grammar, that is a major problem. When my
students have minor errors but I can still get the gist of what they are saying, I am not as
concerned at this point.
R: I have many students that have great ideas, but who cant translate that to an essay that
anyone would want to read. Some do so poorly grammatically that it is a distraction while I read
it. I feel that if they are unable to present the essay well, many people will disregard the content
entirely.

How do you maintain the balance between writing content, and ensuring grammatical
rules and practices are being used?
C: Well, I think it all depends on the assignment. Is the goal of the assignment for students to
connect with To Kill a Mockingbird in a personal way and share a story about that? Well, as long
as I get your main ideas, I'm not going to judge that writing based on grammar. At least not the
first time around.I'm looking to see that you tried to tell me a related story about your life in
your writing. Revising something like this together in class might be a good idea once we have
explicitly been over the grammatical issues. I don't feel right, though, grading 9th graders'
attempts at connecting with literature for content and grammar without warning.

Jolley 7
R: Personally, I try to focus on having each student correct their most common mistake or two
from their first essay. I realize that if I overwhelm them with red marks they shut down, fix what
I say, but never truly improve. By improving their grammatical mistakes a little at time, it helps
my students focus on creating a great paper content wise. When they know that grammar will be
an ever improving process, not a must be 100% right now outlook, it relieves some of the stress
while still placing responsibility on the student to always improve. Also, When my students do
the 30 minute write on Wednesdays the focus is entirely on content. This hopefully helps the
students realize that while grammar is important, and that is why we work on it, it is not the end
all be all of writing.

Janis chose to answer some of the questions together, and did not complete the interview
yet, so the format is not the same.
J:

Grammar is very important. It plays a role in every aspect of peoples' lives. For example,

a rsum filled with poor grammar won't (get) a person a job. Grammar also plays a verbal role.
Interviews, speeches, and presentations need good grammar to convey proper meaning and to
allow the listeners to hear an educated voice.
Grammar wasn't hard for me to learn. It was hard to teach, though. For some people it's
easy to retain these skills because remembering rules isn't hard. I think understanding grammar
deals mainly with relativity. Just like any other discipline, if one can't relate to the subject then
he or she can't retain the knowledge as well.
There is a huge emphasis put on grammar in my classroom. We write everyday through
journal prompts. When the journals are assessed they are graded on length, thought, and
grammar. They are required to write a paragraph or more every day. There is a paper due at least
every week, if not weekly, in my classroom.

Jolley 8
The only time the students strictly learn grammar is when they learn a new rule. We
practice the new rule through writing. My students are assessed more on their ability to
incorporate rules into their writing than standardized tests.
Most of the students catch on quickly. When students don't understand I allow them the
opportunity to tell me what confuses them and we learn it through logic. Students aren't allowed
to say, "I don't know." I also emphasize that grammar is just like any other discipline. They have
to study the content in order to apply the rules in the right context.

Though all of these teachers have a preference a strong emphasis on grammar, they do
acknowledge the difficulties in students practicing these rules in their writing. They all agreed
that learning grammar through writing and how to apply it to their content, rather than just drills
and red-marks, is found to be more effective. Cady and Regina both practice in class writing that
has low stakes, so the students can focus on their content. The balance between the content and
the grammar seems to happen during student/teacher revision. This is where the students can
work out their most common mistakes, and learn grammar through content, rather than being
overwhelmed with red marks as Regina stated. Though grammar is not the end all be all there
is a point where the content can be completely lost due to an excessive amount of grammatical
mistakes. Cady emphasizes the use of grammar in her classroom, but not so much that she is
super picky when assessing the writing. As long as the grammar is done well enough to
understand the content, the teachers seem to be satisfied.

Literature Review
For this research project, looking to previous knowledge on the subject is easy as
remembering ones own elementary through high school experiences. The learning of Grammar

Jolley 9
and all the rules associated with it is about as institutionalized as subjects can be. However,
research on the subject and how it goes along with writing content is still relevant. Through
secondary sources, I found a few main points to be true, first of all, students who have great
writing content can have egregious grammar errors. Second, grammar rules alone do not
improve students writing skills. Last of all , the best way to improve writing skills is to
implement grammar practices along the way through the writing process.
Students who have great grammar content can have egregious grammar errors. This is
mostly due to the fact that all students learn differently. This is not a new concept. We know
this to be true whether someone is studying literature, chemistry, or even learning to play an
instrument. Through my primary research I learned that the teachers interviewed stated that
they had students who did very well on grammar tests, yet did not do well in writing. They also
experienced the opposite effect. In Nagins book, he focuses on how students have different
strengths when it comes to writing. Students, who know the mechanics of grammar, may not
have a handle on content and be able to express themselves as writers. He quotes William
Zinsser in saying .writing is, finally, a craft with its own set of tools, which are words. Like
all tools, they have to be used right (Nagin 5).
Grammar rules alone do not improve writing skills. One of the main issues found in this
research is that grammar rules do not necessarily improve writing skills. We know from data
studies, such as Myhill et als Grammar Matters: How Teachers Grammatical Knowledge
Impacts on the Teaching of Writing that despite all the repetition and importance placed on
grammar, teachers still struggle with metalinguistic knowledge as a whole. Basically, what they
found was that even though teachers were able to teach the grammar rules, they did not
necessarily improve language studies, nor did these drills have any positive effect on the

Jolley 10
students writing. The problem does not lie in whether or not the teacher knows how to
traditionally teach grammar, but rather the fact that the old methods of drills were not working in
the classroom. In Weaver,et als study, which involved going into actual classrooms and
studying specific cases and problems, similar results were found. Weaver argues that the
traditional approach of learning all the basic grammar skills does not lead to successful results
(Weaver 77-82). Nagin argues that learning grammar does not always translate directly into
being able to use it properly in writing, nor does it always aid the content of the writing ( Nagin
17).
Similar to this study was one done by Andrews, et al, in England. It seems that the
problems faced with formal grammar and writing reach around the globe. In his article The
Effect of Grammar Teaching on Writing Development he reaches the conclusion that ...there is
little evidence to indicate that the teaching of formal grammar is effective(Andrews 39). Like
the problems we find here in America with Nagin, there is a strict emphasis placed on formal
grammar in schools despite evidence that it does not work. He relates to other 29th century
studies which have concluded that even though grammar is a tool that can be useful in writing,
that using formal grammar to train students in writing does not improve their composition skills,
and that teaching these formal concepts, especially with younger children, may hinder their
development (Andrews 40).
The best way to implement grammar into writing skills is through teacher/student
revision and conferences. One of his suggestions for policy implication is that there should be
more room for language awareness, which includes rhetorical awareness and focus on genre,
when teaching younger students. By focusing on teaching children how to represent themselves,
instead of formal grammar practice, their writing quality can be vastly improved.

Jolley 11
Myhill introduces the idea that grammatical knowledge should include pedagogical
content in order to assist in students overall writing. It is the intertwining of the students own
content and the formal rules that really makes the concepts connect and work together. Weaver
agrees with this and offers an analogy from one of the teachers she studied. In her study,
Amanda Schripsema, a local middle school teacher, offers what Constance calls a powerful
analogy (79). Amanda likens grammar and writing to mechanics and driving teenagers. She
explains that we would not force teenage drivers to learn all the parts of a car engine before they
drive the car, so why would we make students practice strict grammar rules before writing? Like
driving a car, writing takes practice. Weaver goes on to suggest that Amandas lesson should not
be taken lightly. This idea of using the writing process as a way to introduce grammar practices
should be implemented into teaching practices. Weaver heavily encourages the use of teacher
conferences. She states This is an excellent time to give individual instruction on grammatical
issues, based on the specific needs...of that student (Weaver 92). To weaver, this includes not
only showing them examples of what errors have been made in the students writing, but also
...positive and powerful models from their writing(95). Nagin too suggests that the gap can
be met with the revision process. He says that students need to figure out their ideas first, and
then can work on mechanics in the revision stages. He states Students in a good writing
teachers classroom, whether in kindergarten or in college, engage in inquiry, drafting, revising,
and editing (25). Like Regina suggested in her interview, most of the learning seems to be done
in the revision process. Rather than drilling students with grammatical rules and then expecting
them to remember it all as they are writing, have the students write first, and then implement the
grammar into their writing. This allows the student to not only maintain their own personal

Jolley 12
writing style, it keeps them from being overwhelmed with errors. They have real examples of
their own writing to refer to, instead of some numbered sentence in a workbook.

Analysis
Though all of my findings came from various sources and studies, they all seemed to agree on
one thing: grammar drills did not improve writing. Initially, my focus was that working on
content would improve writing. Though Nagin and other scholars offer a lot to say about
working on content and creativity, my research showed that content too was suffering due to the
mechanics and skills being lost in translation. Overall, the problem stemmed from tradition. My
research covered studies from England, Canada, Hispanic speaking countries, and even a school
only about an hour away in rural Alabama. These places all have a tradition of growing up
learning grammar rules through drills, worksheets, and tests. This international practice has an
issue: it is just not working.
Even in my interviews, I found that teachers still want to cling to their grammar focus. It
has been so ingrained in us as scholars and students of English. Where my interviewees were
concerned there was also a pressure from higher up. The scholars had the leniency of merely
observing and talking about how to solve the problem; whereas, the teachers were stuck straight
in the middle of it. There other things besides writing that they have to consider when it comes to
grammar. Despite what their own pedagogy may lead them, they still have tests and
administrators to answer to. Others may see grammar as separate because of our own
experiences with it. All agreed that grammar was very important, and needed to understand
content, but all acknowledged the separation between performance on tests and actual written
work.

Jolley 13
With all that was found in my research, one of the main solutions found to this problem
was through revision. The teachers are better able to understand what issues come up in writing
if they have an actual document to look at. The students are able to see real instances where the
grammar rules become useful and relevant in their own writing. Though teacher conferences and
student revision, the gap between grammar and content can be closed.
Conclusion
My initial purpose of this research project was to validate my own issues with writing.
Over the years I may have grown a bit bitter of having great ideas overshadowed by my
superfluous use of be verbs and my habit of using too many prepositions. It was the teachers
fault if they let a comma splice mix up my meaning, right? I went into the researching part of
this hoping to find others like myself, who were tired of the who and whoms and whether it is
ok to use the word you in an academic paper. Unfortunately, I only found hints of this
throughout the process. There was apparently a greater concern in writing. What I found
through my primary and secondary research is that teachers also struggle with grammar, mainly
with getting it into their students writing. After all the data, theories, and research it all came
down to one thing: writing. Writing is the only way to solve the struggle between content and
grammar. The more students write, and analyze that writing, the more they are able to see their
mistakes and become better writers. There will always be grammar nazis, and there will always
be outliers who could care less as long as their points are understood. Those arguments can
continue to rage on, the important thing is that through our arguments students keep learning
how to communicate through writing. I think that for this issue to truly be resolved, we need to
stop thinking of grammar as a thing in itself. It is a tool for writing, but we see it in its own
separate sphere. I we could somehow keep from segregating grammar and mechanics from

Jolley 14
content and creativity, then there could be an improvement in writing over all. It all started with
writing, and this is how it ends.

Jolley 15
Works Cited
Andrews, Richard, et al. The Effect of Grammar Teaching on Writing Development. British
Educational Research Journal 32.1 (2006): 39-55. Web 27 Oct. 2014
Bigelow, Martha, and Susan Ranney. Knowledge About Language for Teachers is More than
Knowing Grammar Rules. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 3.1(2010):
217-228. Web. 14 Sept. 2014
Hillocks, Jr., George. At Last: The Focus on Form vs. Content in Teaching Writing. Research
in the Teaching of English, Vol. 40, No. 2 (Nov., 2005) pp. 238-248. JSTOR Journals.
Web. 10 Oct. 2014
Iderson, J. Charles, and Benjamin Kremmel. Re-examining the Content Validation of a
Grammar Test: The (Im)Possibility of Distinguishing Vocabulary and Structural
Knowledge. Language Testing 30.4 (2013): 535-556. Web. 1 Nov. 2014

Myhill, Debra, and Annabel Watson. The Role of Grammar in the Writing Curriculum: A
Review of the Literature. Child Language Teaching and Therapy 3.1(2014): 41-62.
ERIC Web. 29 Oct. 2014

Myhill, Debra, Susan Jones, and Annabel Watson. Grammar Matters: How Teachers
Grammatical Knowledge Impacts on the Teaching of Writing. Teaching and Teacher
Edcuation 36. (2013) 77-91. ScienceDirect. Web. 14 Sept. 2014
Nagin, Carl, and National Writing Project. Because Writing Matters. San Francisco: John Wiley
& Sons, Inc, 2006. Print.
Valeo, Antonella. The Integration of Language and Content: Form-Focused Instruction in a
Content-Based Language Program. Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics 16.1

Jolley 16
(2013): 25-50. Web. 9 Nov. 2014.
Vardri, Iris. The Impact of Iterative Writing and Feedback on the Characteristics of Tertiary
Students Written Texts. Teaching in Higher Education 17.2 (2012): 167-179. Web. 7
Nov. 2014
Weaver, Constance, et al. Grammar Intertwined Throughout the Writing Process: An Inch
Wide and a Mile Deep. English Teaching: Practice and Critique 5.1 (2006): 77-101.
ERIC Web. 7 Oct. 2014