HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY GIFT OF GINN & CO. COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE JOHN C. WINSTON Co. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PREFACE This book, as its title suggests, is designed to teach grammar for use in expression rather than for mere knowledge of grammatical theory. An effort has been made to present fundamental grammatical principles with such simplicity and detail that pupils of average ability in grades seven to nine inclusive can understand them with little help. In this connection particular attention has been paid to the grading. In presenting each subject, the approach has been made as simple and obvious as possible, and each successive, step has been developed and illustrated clearly. In short, the aim of the book is not merely to state and illustrate the principles of grammar, but also to teach and apply them. An unusually large quantity of material for drill in connection with each important topic has been supplied. This drill should establish the essential habit of using the principles learned. The manuscript of GRAMMAR TO USE was practically complete before the publication of the joint report on the study of English by the commission of the National Education Association and the National Council of Teachers of English. The following quotation from the report, however, summarizes accurately the fundamental principles underlying the preparation of the book. "The reaction against English grammar arose from the knowledge that the formal work in the subject that was being done was of small practical value. A further influence resulted from investigations tending to show that grammar provides little mental discipline of a general character. The movement in favor of simplifying the school course and concentrating on essentials did the rest. There is need at the present time of careful discrimination, lest the pendulum be allowed to swing too far. "A sane attitude toward the teaching of grammar would seem to be to find out what parts and aspects of the subject have actual value to children in enabling them to improve their speaking, writing, and reading, to teach these parts according to modern scientific methods, and to ignore any and all portions of the conventional school grammar that fall outside these categories. In general, the grammar worth teaching is the grammar of use-function in the sentence-and the grammar to be passed over is the grammar of classification-pigeonholing by definition. Language, it is well known, is learned mainly by imitation, largely unconscious, and children constantly use in their speech hundreds of expressions, many of them highly idiomatic, which only the linguistic scholar, familiar with the history of the language, can explain. Children should be set to examining only those grammatical forms and constructions whose use they can plainly see, and they should pursue such examination with the conscious purpose of learning how to make better sentences. Any other aim is mere pedantry." The sentences for drill, examples of typical errors, and the list of idioms are illustrative of the actual usage of pupils. Proverbs and literary quotations have been avoided. The authors believe that the drill most likely to be effective is that which is most nearly in the everyday language of the pupil. Perhaps the distinctive characteristic of the book is the emphasis which it places upon function as the basis for determining the classification and use of grammatical elements. The word, phrase, or clause is what its function in the sentence makes it. If the child can be made to understand clearly the nature of a sentence and of the work each part of speech does in a sentence, his most serious grammatical troubles will disappear. For such a method of development, an understanding of the sentence is necessary, and for this reason the treatment of that subject has been placed first. The authors desire to express their thanks to the English Department of the William Penn High School of Philadelphia for the use of illustrative and drill material, and to Miss Elizabeth Lodor, the head of this department, and to Mr. Bruce M. Watson, formerly Superintendent of Schools of Spokane, Washington, both of whom have given many invaluable suggestions. |