Imitating Grammar to Understand Purpose and Craft

Here is an example from Imelda Enriquez. As we collaborated for this assignment, we were really

able to capture how grammar intersects with Author’s Purpose and Craft. When we imitate sentences,

we are doing more than imitating a grammatical structure. We are also looking at why an author would

have used the sentences in this way to reveal character and theme. Another important distinction here

is that our work is not about correcting things that are wrong, but analyzing the impact on the reader. 

Students will read an excerpt from “Wonder” by R.J. Palacio.

“I know I’m not an ordinary ten-year-old kid. I mean, sure, I do ordinary things. I eat ice cream. I ride my bike. I play ball. I have an XBox. Stuff like that makes me ordinary. I guess. And I feel ordinary. Inside. But I know ordinary kids don’t make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. I know ordinary kids don’t get stared at wherever they go.”

-Wonder by R.J. Palacio 

The excerpt has many short sentences. I would ask students why Palacio wrote it that way.

By using short sentences, how does Palacio give the reader information about the character?

Normally, we’d ask students to combine sentences to make them flow better. But Placio chose NOT to.

Let’s look at what happens when we combine them. 

“I know I’m not an ordinary ten-year-old kid. I mean, sure, I do ordinary things like eat ice cream, ride my bike, play ball, and play XBox. Stuff like that makes me ordinary, I guess. And I feel ordinary inside, but I know ordinary kids don’t make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds. I know ordinary kids don’t get stared at wherever they go.”

How does your view of the character change? 

Here are some of my thoughts…

Original	Revision	Significance
I eat ice cream. I ride my bike. I play ball. I have an XBox.	I mean, sure, I do ordinary things like eat ice cream, ride my bike, play ball, and play XBox.	By teasing the different items out in sentences on their own, they are each a punctuation of a list. They emphasize all the WAYS he is different. This becomes more important later in the paragraph because the whole point of this passage is that the kid ISN’T normal to other folks.
Stuff like that makes me ordinary. I guess.	Stuff like that makes me ordinary,I guess.	These are very different choices. In the first one, he makes a statement. The next sentence shows you that he disagrees with it. Or at the least that he’s not sure about it. In the second one, the “I guess” just sounds like an afterthought.
And I feel ordinary. Inside. But I know ordinary kids don’t make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds.	And I feel ordinary inside, but I know ordinary kids don’t make other ordinary kids run away screaming in playgrounds.	Wow. This one is shocking in comparison. Look how Palacio makes “inside” its own sentence. That fragment emphasized that Auggie feels about NOT being ordinary. And that it is a fragment is also significant because when people react the way they do, it must tear him into pieces.  This structure also begins to take us to where the author is headed with theme: what is ordinary? Should what is on the outside determine that?

Rules or Tools of Grammar

I just found the most wonderful example of how Jeff Anderson's Patterns of Power can illuminate how we apply Author's Purpose and Craft to Grammar. Tara Salmon, from Highland Park, and I have composed this lesson exemplar for you as an exemplar for the Region 16 Grammar Geeks course.

I know Jeff...and he would always agree that grammar is about how we craft language to impact the reader. Our standards require us to go beyond the grammatical structures and rules to explore how they help us as readers and writers. 

If you are skimming the article - look for when I change the font.

The lesson below is an exemplar of how grammar is connected to how we read and write with craft and purpose. 

Standard: Complex sentences with subject-verb agreement and avoidance of splices, run-ons, and fragments. (Composition, Editing: Grades 6-12, Di)

Focus Phrase: I will write complex sentences using correct punctuation and subject-verb agreement. 

Invitation to Notice: Because he was small, Stuart was often hard to find around the house. Stuart Little, E. B. White

To Consider:   

• Rule: When the AAAWWUBBIS comes at the beginning of a sentence, a comma follows. If the AAAWWUBBIS comes in the middle of a sentence, there is no comma needed. 
• Craft: What is the impact on meaning and prosody when those structures are used? How is the author using those structures to develop the character, advance the plot, or express theme?

Invitation to Compare and Contrast:  

• Because he was so small, Stuart was often hard to find around the house.
• Stuart was often hard to find around the house because he was so small.
• Note the grammatical differences between the two sentences. Note when a comma is needed and when it is not.
• Note the impact each has on you as a reader. What changes in terms of the writer's emphasis? What changes in your visualizations and comprehension?

Invitation to Edit:  Compose the sentence in both ways and analyze the effect on character, theme, and meaning.

• When his best friend disappears from her nest Stuart is determined to track her down.
• Stuart is a lover of adventure although he's shy.
• Since he lives in New York Stuart is used to city life. 

Reflection: What did we learn about writing from this author? What changed? Name the effect of the change you wish students to consider.

What is the IMPACT of using the dependent clause first? What is the IMPACT if the independent clause is used first? For the example here, I would say that the author's purpose is to emphasize how SMALL Stuart is. The main point is not that he is hard to find - that's just an example. The main point - and emphasized throughout the book is that he is SMALL. This is important to establish his character traits when he is introduced because it is a huge contrast to the optimism he marshals despite the huge deck stacked against him. I guess what I'm saying is that we have to go beyond grammatical structures and rules to express how they give us vehicles for power and beauty in discerning the author's message and the ability to craft our own contributions.

Teacher's Application to Writing: Here's how I'm using it today: "Because I was already irritated before entering the building, I continued to find it difficult to focus throughout the rest of the day." I'm liking this better than the other way around: I continued to find it difficult to focus throughout the rest of the day because I was already irritated before entering the building. The second version makes it seem like the point was the difficulty in focusing instead of the CAUSE. It also delays the emotion until the ending of the sentence. I want my reader to feel my irritation way before the end of that sentence.