Grammar for Being Rebelious (Week 15)

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 English grammar is one of the most intriguing and challening subjects for students.  Despite having rules and structures, teachers from different regions may teach the rules and expectations differently based on regional differences, needs, and practices. Weinstein and Finn stated that "nearly all the grammar rules taught in elementary school and high school are quite reasonable and should be observed" (127).  In addition, they stated that "certain rules commonly taught at the high school level ae questionable" (127). As a result, students get confused, and they break certain rules when they speak or write.

For example, "The bureaucracy continued to run things, badly."  As a student, I did not learn to use adverb at the end of the sentence.  I was taught to use adverbs before a verb to modify an action or the state of being. Instead of having an adverb at the end, I would use it at the beginning to be formal and directly. In addition, I would use it at the end without a comma to support how the bureaucracy ran things in the past. When a comma is used before an adverb, it can denote an informal feeling.  The writer's tone may not be serious in this case.  

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 As a student and teacher, I have not been in any situation where I was being playful in papers that I wrote professionally and academically.  For example, "Two hundred years - that is cause enough to celebrate."  I would not dare to be playful when I write because I might not get the points and might earn negative feedback from my peers and professors due to the lack of professionalism.  Perhaps, children may use these playful tactics on their papers. For example, I had several students who wrote "I don't know" on their test papers when they did not know the answers to the test questions. Weinstein and Finn reported that Lawrence Kohlberg, a 20th century psychologist, "argued that people operate at different levels of morality" (128). As a result, people at different levels of morality tend to obey rules, so they do not face punishments (Weinstein and Finn 129). Weinstein and Finn emphasized that people do break rules occasionally for different reasons. 

Works Cited

Weinstein, Lawrence and Finn, Thomas. Grammar Moves: Shaping Who You Are. Pearson 

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