by Roslyn Detelin - University of Queensland, Australia.

What does the word 'grammar' mean to you? 'Glamour' is probably

not the first word that you think of when you hear the word
grammar', but one of the grammar experts whom we interviewed
for this MOOC, Professor Fred D'Agostino, talks about the
'glamour of grammar'. He explains how both words are derived
from the word for 'learning', as in 'grammar' schools.
Grammar and glamour are essentially the same word,derived from
the Greek, 'grammatikos',meaning 'of letters',which covered the
whole of arts and letters. In the Middle Ages, 'grammar'
generally meant 'learning', which, in the popular imagination,
included a knowledge of magic. So, grammar has origins that are
glamorous and magical.
The narrowing of grammar to mean 'the rules of language' came
late in the 17th century to the study of English, and in the
19th century the words went their separate ways.
If you'd like to listen to Professor D'Agostino,you will find
the video clip in our course resources.
It's quite usual for people to speak and write correctly without
knowing the explicit rules of grammar. So, when you're studying
grammar, you're studying what you may already know. You all have
an intuitive command of grammar because you've been using it
since you started to talk, but you also need a conscious command
of the rules so that you can apply them to your writing.
Grammar is the underlying system of rules of a language.
When you study what
studying grammar.

the

language

can

and

can't

do,

you're

Categorising and labelling the words in a sentence using the

parts of speech as traditional grammarians do isn't always
reliable, however.
We'll introduce you to the
contemporary linguists call
helping you to understand
sentence,that is, its role
words.

traditional parts of speech, what

'word classes', and concentrate on
the function of each word in a
and how it relates to the other

Another term that you need to be familiar with is syntax. It's

the arrangement and inter-relations among words in a sentence,
the structure of the sentence.
No one starts at zero. You already have a good intuitive sense
of grammar,but you need to be able to pinpoint what makes a
piece of writing work or not work.
You'll benefit greatly from a grounding in grammar. A knowledge
of grammar will provide you with a wonderful toolkit that will
give you greater confidence and greater power over your writing.

The novelist Philip Pullman, in an article in The Guardian says

that 'Taking care of the tools means developing the faculty of
sensing when we're not sure about a point of grammar. We don't
have to know infallibly that we might have got it wrong, because
then we can look it up and get it to work properly. Sometimes
we're told that this sort of thing doesn't matter very much. If
only a few readers recognise and object to unattached
participles, for example,and most readers don't notice and sort
of get the sense anyway, why bother?'
I discovered a very good answer to that, and it goes like this:
if people don't notice when we get it wrong,they won't mind if
we get it right. And if we do get it right, we'll please the few
who know and care about these things, so everyone will be happy.
The following experts have been very outspoken about the value
of knowing grammar rules:
The Journalist Dot Wordworth says It's cruel not to teach
grammar to children.'
Harry Mount says If you don't know grammar, you can't write
English!' He goes on to say:'Know your grammar and you can
produce every kind of fantastic verbal construction and - this
is the crucial bit - be understood'.
The jazz musician Charles Mingus talking about jazz says:'Ya
gotta know all the rules and structures inside out before you
start to break the - and make truly great music'.
You need to understand the rules of grammar so that you know
when it's OK to break them.
Writing teacher Richard Weaver says:'Using a language may be
compared to riding a horse:much of one's success depends upon an
understanding of what it can and will do'.
Knowing grammar can make you into a truly great writer.
The basis of grammatical awareness is sentence sense and this
comes with reading. Poor writers cannot or do not read their own
writing accurately or perceptively. They lack a reader's
perspective. You need to read widely. Read! Read! Read! Just
like the grammar goblin.
Wide reading, particularly of authors who write very well, will
help you to absorb a great deal about grammatical,syntactical,
and punctuation patterns and the craft of writing. The better we
understand English, the greaterour pleasure in reading it.
If
you're
already
confident
about
your
writing,reading
syntactically challenging writing can be helpful, too.