Grammar and Writing

It's extremely difficult to give (or understand) advice about writing if you don't have an understanding of grammar.

Before I learned grammar, I was a writing tutor, and my tutoring sessions were painful because I didn't know what I was doing. I wasn't able to give my students clear advice about how to make their sentences better.

Learning grammar gave me a way to analyze writing, and it also gave me the vocabulary to teach other people how to make their writing better.

Let's Look At An Example

Imagine receiving this work from a student. (If you're not a teacher, imagine that you yourself have written the following sentences and you're trying to make them better.)

The cat was surprised. It jumped back and stared at the crab. The crab had just pinched the dog's nose.

There's nothing wrong with those sentences. They're just fine, and they're perfectly appropriate for students at certain skill levels. But, if you wanted to help this student become a better writer, you would want to give him advice on what he could do differently. If you didn't know grammar, your advice might look something like this.

These sentences are a bit monotonous. Can you combine some of these ideas to make a more interesting sentence?

The problem is that this student would have no idea how to make his sentence more interesting.

If, on the other hand, you and your student both knew grammar, your advice might look something like this.

These sentences all have similar structure. What if you combined them into one sentence by making "surprised" an introductory participle and turning one of the other sentences into a dependent adjective clause?

Now there are clear ideas for exactly how to make the sentence more interesting. If the student put that advice into practice, his rewrite might look something like this.

Surprised, the cat jumped back and stared at the crab, which had just pinched the dog's nose.

That's better!

Add Tools To Your Toolbox

Join the Writing & Grammar Program, and you'll learn specific ways to enhance your writing and make it more interesting!

This program contains 30 written lessons and videos with tips and tools for writing better sentences. The lessons also include writing prompts that get you to apply what you learn.

You don't need to know grammar in order to join us. I'll include short grammar lessons about the concepts that we cover, and I'll also link to extra lessons if you want to learn more about any of them. Here are some examples of concepts that you'll use in crafting your own sentences.

Introductory Adverb
Introductory Prepositional Phrase
Dependent Adjective Clause

Each of the lessons will be available to you online as well as in a printable PDF file format, and you'll have the opportunity to join in our live round, which starts March 11!

Individuals & Families

Home-Based
Lifetime Access $99

Classroom Teachers, Homeschool Co-op Teachers, & Tutors

School-Based, Per Teacher
Annual Access $147

Join the Grammar & Writing Program

Learn to Write Better Sentences!
Downloadable, Printable Versions of Each of the 30 Lesson (PDFs & Videos for Each Lesson)
Closed Captioned Videos (Auto-generated)
Assignments for Each Lesson (You'll be writing at least three of your own sentences based on the concepts covered in each lesson.)
Example Sentences From Past Participants for Each Lesson
Instant Access to Entire Program

What Past Participants Have To Say

I have run an interactive version of this program a few times, and each time was such fun! We had great groups of people who actively participated in commenting. Here are just a handful of comments from those rounds.

Although I have subscribed to Grammar Revolution for several years, I never expected you to create such a helpful course. I have learned many things from you, but never before have they been brought together with such finesse.

- Bill

I look forward to these lessons every day. :)

- Lana

I really enjoyed this course and found it very valuable. The summary in the last lesson is wonderful, and I plan to keep it easily accessible so that I can frequently review it. I care a great deal about grammar, but I was unsystematic in my approach. Your lessons are a great start for getting a deliberate hold on writing (and thinking).

- Stephen

I'm so glad that I decided to take this course! I love reading all of the other student sentences along with your kind comments and suggested improvements.

- Terry

I am learning so much in this course. I am in awe of you as a teacher, and I appreciate your time and effort in giving individual feedback. It has been your feedback comments that have cemented certain concepts for me.

- Madeleine

Individuals & Families

Home-Based
Lifetime Access $99

Classroom Teachers, Homeschool Co-op Teachers, & Tutors

School-Based, Per Teacher
Annual Access $147

Join the Grammar & Writing Program

Learn to Write Better Sentences!
Downloadable, Printable Versions of Each of the 30 Lesson (PDFs & Videos for Each Lesson)
Closed Captioned Videos (Auto-generated)
Assignments for Each Lesson (You'll be writing at least three of your own sentences based on the concepts covered in each lesson.)
Example Sentences From Past Participants for Each Lesson
Instant Access to Entire Program

I hope that you'll join us!

:) Elizabeth

Hello! I'm Elizabeth O'Brien, and my goal is to get you jazzed about grammar.