How many of you remember diagramming sentences in elementary school? Where you shuffled, with great trepidation, to the chalkboard to draw a straight line and bisect it to show the “subject” (noun) and “predicate” (verb). And then the diagonal line(s) underneath one or more of those words to show “modifiers.”
I have to make a confession—I liked diagramming. Although some have likened it to a mathematical equation, I see it more as putting pieces into a jigsaw puzzle (I’m not mathematically inclined, but I do like puzzles).
It is easy enough to figure out “The horse galloped” or “The cat hissed.” But what about “John’s horse galloped around the paddock and then ran into the woods.” Oh my. Now you’re getting into lines underneath the lines beneath the subject/predicate line. And where does “around the paddock” go? OK, maybe that’s easy enough (under the verb galloped seems logical). But where does the rest of it go? And why do we care? Do we need to know how an airplane is designed before we fly? Do we need to know the terms and parts of a sentence before we write?
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Writers On The Move: Diagramming for Grammar
Tonight August 16 8 PM CENTRAL - A GOOD STORY IS A GOOD STORY with Host Marsha Casper Cook, April Robins, Freda Roberts, and Virginia S. Grenier. Their guest this week is Carolyn Howard – Johnson. Marketing Matters. Carolyn is going to discuss the importance of marketing . She has a series of book that have won multiple awards. She’s an author, speaker, publishing consultant and book promoting coach. She is a one woman show and a very special woman. She has helped many writers learn how to do the impossible – market their work using techniques that are affordable. Her expertise has helped put writers on the map She was awarded Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment by the California Legislature; her home town's Character and Ethics Commission honored for her work on promoting tolerance and the Pasadena Weekly named her to their list of "San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen" for literary activism. American Women's Business Association (ABWA)...