Mulroy's War

In David Mulroy's The War Against Grammar, the title of chapter one paints a clear picture of his feelings towards grammar - America the Grammarless he proudly declares. This statement is followed by examples of what other professors do to correct student grammar, showing the ignorance of college students who do not understand basic concepts of grammar. Mulroy goes on to attack the NCTE at some length. He is outraged that the NCTE does not feel the need to teach "formal" grammar to high school students; he also mentions Peter Elbow and his approach that people should ignore grammar altogether to help their writing. Mulroy's four straws in the wind feel like a direct assault on my generation. He makes many comments on how our test scores have fallen over the years and how this is a direct result of ability with language.

I agree with Mulroy that I as an English major need to know grammar on a "formal" level, but I do not agree that all students need to go through a crash course in grammar in order to be a good writer. I feel that the NCTE and the Writing Next report have it right with their embedding techniques. Students who do not need formal grammar could benefit from having grammar lessons withing their writing lessons, i.e. sentence combining exercises. I must admit that I was irritated when I first read this chapter, taking it too personal, but after some thought; I realized that his points were alarming and I (if I teach) need to find a better way to improve student writing other than this forced grammar.