Resource List for EN/ED325 Modern Grammar

Online Resources:

Aardvark’s English Forum for Students and Teachers of English including ESL and EFL http://www.english-forum.com/

Electric Library http://www.elibrary.com/

Grammar and Style Notes http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/

The Guide to Grammar and Writing http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/

Kies, Daniel, Modern English Grammar. http://papyr.com/hypertextbooks/engl_126/book126.htm
A text somewhat like our course text, but with broader implications.  It might be quite useful for extra study and practice.

Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/

Library Spot http://www.libraryspot.com/

My Virtual Reference Desk http://www.refdesk.com/

Online English Dictionary and Thesaurus www.dictionary.com

Online Dictionary and links to grammar guides for 110 languages, including English http://www.yourdictionary.com

Park University’s Library with links to Lexis-Nexis, Ebsco, and more http://www.park.edu/student/lib.asp

Smartthinking.com www.smartthinking.com

THOR: The Virtual Reference Desk http://thorplus.lib.purdue.edu/reference/index.html

Vavra, Edward.  Teaching Grammar as a Liberating Art.     http://www2.pct.edu/courses/evavra/TGLA/Index.htm   [Insightful textbook for those who are looking for effective means of teaching grammar (grades 3-12).  Plenty of theory for sequencing of grammatical skills.]

Documentation Information

Citing Sources with the New MLA Rules http://www.mla.org/

Documenting Electronic Sources

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/index2.html

Avoiding Plagiarism (Indiana) http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html

Online Writing Labs

On-Line Writing Lab (Purdue) http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

Writing Resources (Yahoo) http://www.yahoo.com/Social_Science/Communications/Writing/

 

Hard-Copy Resources

Note:  Some hard-copy sources might be difficult to find depending upon your access to higher education libraries.  None of the hard-copy texts listed below is necessary for success in this course.  They are, however, standards for the discipline.  I recommend that you find opportunity of looking at them now, if possible, later if you can't find them now.

Chomsky, Noam.  Syntactic Structures. The Hague:  Mouton & Co., 1957. (The Genesis of generative transformational grammar.  Still holy writ to many of us.)

______.  Aspects of the Theory of Syntax.  Cambridge, Mass.:  The MIT Press, 1965.  (Further revelation.)

Delahunty, Gerald P. and James J. Garvey. Language, Grammar, &     Communication: A Course for Teachers of English. St.Louis:  McGraw-Hill, 1994. (I must say thanks to these authors.  There is a great deal of agreement between my book and theirs.  I used it in my classroom for two years before I finally had to admit that it simply buried my students in information they didn't need.   My book limits and simplifies largely the same information contained in this book.   It is still the best I have found with the theory that it contains although the authors spill too much ink debunking traditional grammar while they are not critical enough of modern systems.

Kolln, Martha and Robert Funk.  Understanding English Grammar, 6th Ed.  New York:  Longman, 2001.  (Solid theory.  Traditional  Reed-Kellogg Diagrams but essentially based upon early transformational phrase structure grammar.)

Noguchi, Rei R. Grammar and the Teaching of Writing: Limits and Possibilities. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English,1991. (The contemporary standard for minimalist grammar.  A brief and excellent examination of what is and is not amenable to grammatical intervention in the writing classroom.)

Reed , Alonzo and Brainerd Kellogg. Higher Lessons in English. New York: Clark and Maynard, 1877. (Many other editions available. The old standard for the teaching of traditional grammar.  If you wonder where the traditional diagrams came from, this is the place.)        

Strunk, William, Jr. and E.B. White. Elements of Style, 3^rd Ed., Boston:  Allyn and Bacon, 1979. (Many other editions available.  This is probably the most recognized, long-standing, traditional style and usage guide for written English.)

Weaver, Constance. Teaching Grammar in Context. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1996. (Excellent source of grammar minilessons for solving grammatical problems in the writing classroom.  Also, examines the types of errors that are amenable to grammatical solutions.)

Vitale, Edmund, Jr.  Thinking Your Way Through English Grammar.   Clearwater, Florida:  H & H Publishing, 1991.  (An interesting simplified  text that emphasizes structuralism in the preTG mode.)