Often when we discuss issues of teaching grammar, we focus on higher-order concerns of language variety, grammar as a tool for writers, and others. We tend to forget that teachers also need to be able to diagnose key grammatical issues and explain them to students, as they apply to the students' writing.

"Grammar RX" is a series of mini-lessons, done for teachers by teachers, that focuses on the top grammatical issues seen in middle school, high school, and college student papers. The handouts are "teachers' introductions to..." each issue.

Although we have not come close to discussing all grammatical errors that students can make in their work, this set of resources will give teachers a good start at avoiding marking papers with the dreaded 'awk' marking (which typically means "I can tell that you did something wrong here, but I'm not exactly sure what it is").

We don't advocate that teachers always tell students what grammatical error they have made, but we do believe that teachers should be aware of such errors and be able to identify and discuss them as teachers -- and then translate their knowledge to the student writers they are guiding.

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Misplaced Modifiers

Sentence Fragments