Your teens drilled on college grammar, did worksheets to identify common grammar mistakes, practiced SAT questions to correct common grammar errors. They have grammar for writing down cold, right?
Possibly.
Standardized "bubble tests" don't test whether students can apply writing conventions like correct spelling and grammar in their own writing. What counts in the college classroom is the students' own writing. No matter how well students do on standardized tests, if they can't write grammatically, they will have a tough time in college.
In 1992, Connors and Lunsford did a study of the most common errors in the writing of college students. The researchers found 20 specific errors accounted for over 91.5% of all the errors in college students' writing. Here, in descending order of frequency, is their list:
1. Missing comma after introductory element
2. Vague pronoun reference
3. Missing comma in compound sentence
4. Wrong word, especially a wrong homonym
5. Missing comma(s) with nonessential (nonrestrictive) element
6. Wrong/missing verb ending
7. Wrong/missing preposition
8. Comma splice
9. Missing/misplaced possessive apostrophe
10. Unnecessary shift in verb tense
11. Unnecessary shift in pronoun
12. Sentence fragment
13. Wrong tense or verb form
14. Lack of subject-verb agreement
15. Missing comma in a series
16. Lack of agreement of pronoun with antecedent
17. Unnecessary comma(s) with restrictive element
18. Fused (run-together) sentences
20. It's/its confusion
Nothing on the list of common grammar mistakes should be above the ability of a sixth grader, should it?
If you can teach your students so throughly that they rarely let an error from that list slip into their writing, you will have equipped them with the grammar for writing required in most college and workplace situations.
Author Info:
Linda Aragoni is a writer, writing teacher, and editor of You-Can-Teach-Writing.com, the guide to enabling students grades 7-12 to become competent writers. Get a free copy of all five articles in the series "Is Your Teen Ready for College Writing? just by signing up for Linda's free monthly ezine by Aug. 1, 2008. Details at http://www.you-can-teach-writing.com/ezine.html
Copyright 2008, Linda Gorton Aragoni. You may reprint this article provided the whole text, the author's name, the links, and this copyright notice remain intact.
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