Breaking the Rules: A Witty, Engaging Read

books:


	• Breaking the Rules: Liberating Writers Through Innovative Grammar Instruction Edgar H. Schuster Heinemann, 2003 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 18 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Review of breaking the rules

If you are looking for an untraditional and creative means of helping students become better writers then this book is for you. breaking the rules by Edgar Schuster is a idealistic book about grammar that goes beyond traditional instruction. This book is meant for anyone who is interested in a better instruction of grammar, which includes college students and reflective teachers.
In the book Schuster suggest that teachers look at the works of students, writers, and other professionals and then after reviewing the works, the teachers need to decide which language rules are practical and which ones on be broken, for example the case of Finlay McQuade during the late 1970's. McQuade took a good look at his Editorial Skills class and found out that teaching grammar in a traditionally way is a failure (p. xviii.) There is too many rules in traditional grammar that has no space in the realities of spoken or written language today.
The book is full of real life anecdotes that makes it easy to read. For example, Schuster used himself in an example about a student who was told that the definition of a pronoun was a word that replaces a noun. So the student used words such as writer for author and book for novel. There are detailed instructions on how grammar rules are used, and if possible, how the rule can be broken to enhance the writing. The book includes many topics from the definition of a noun to tips on revising and editing. There are also many activities in the book that make it easier for the reader to understand the concept.
This is a wonderful book to keep on hand for a reference for anyone who is going into the field of teaching or anyone else who is interested in improving his or her writing.

for more information click here

A Fun Grammar Book

Warning! Breaking the Rules is not for people who like boring, stuffy traditional grammar books! It's almost fun to read. Edgar H. Schuster writes in a chatty manner and uses humor to prove his points.
This book is written for teachers, and it's obvious from his examples that Schuster has taught before. I found topics like grading students' papers and commonly confused words to be especially relevant to what a teacher may need to know. Schuster states information plainly and doesn't go into too much detail explaining it. Schuster pushes teachers not to make grammar lessons stuffy, but to change because grammar changes.
There aren't many examples in Breaking the Rules, so if you want lists of examples this book is not for you. Schuster includes lesson plans that are diverse, encouraging students to explore different parts of grammar. This book is for teachers and includes activities and information that may not be useful to others. My favorite activity is about personal pronouns. This activity is on pages 23-26 and it is designed to show students that they already know a great deal about personal pronouns. This specific activity will make grammar seem less intimidating. The activities are adaptable and can be used for high school or younger aged children.
I liked this book because it's different. Breaking the Rules should be on every teacher's bookshelf. It teaches teachers to think out of the box and to learn more about teaching the English language. A quote by Frank McCourt sums up why teachers should read this book: "If you're teaching and you're not learning then you're not teaching." This book will teach, if you are willing and accepting.

for more information click here

Best grammar book I have ever read!

Breaking the Rules: Liberating writers through innovative grammar instruction, by Edgar H. Schuster, could not be a more awesome grammar book. He truly follows his title by breaking the time-old traditional grammar rules. This is by far the most innovative grammar instruction I have ever seen. This book can be used by anyone from the novice writer to the future English teacher. Schuster is all about breaking the rules of traditional grammar and making them easier for the average person to understand. One of the major concepts that he stresses throughout the entire book is not to sacrifice the writing for content (meaning, a grammatically perfect essay does not make an interesting essay).
Why fret about breaking rules in a class? Rules that professional authors break in their published novels all the time? Schuster says that you should not. On page xv of the Introduction, Schuster writes that "[n]ot to allow students to break rules is to deny them full access to the linguistic resources of English; resources that people need to express themselves and achieve their own voices." He could not be more correct in my eyes. How interesting is it to read a paper that follows every grammar rule to a T, but is so dull one cannot get through a single paragraph without either feeling completely overwhelmed, or desperately fighting off sleep yawns? Not very interesting I can tell you that, which is one of the reasons why this book is so easy to both read and understand.
Schuster writes as if he is speaking with the reader, with a very conversational tone. I have found that this tone makes reading this book seem as if I am actually speaking with him, rather than having the information beat into me. However, sometimes due to his rather informal
tone, he tends to get a bit carried away. Like, for instance, he put so much time and research into finding examples to support his claims that sometimes he includes so many of them for one subject that one can get a tad tired of reading them all. All of the lessons and activities that Schuster uses to support the grammar subjects he covers are very fun and inventive, he flips the world of grammar instruction upside down. One of his Verb lessons just totally caught my eye. The goal of this lesson on page 29 is "To demonstrate that one learns the part of speech of a word automatically, at the same time one learns its meaning." How often has anyone seen this as a goal for a grammar lesson? Usually teachers assume that students are not capable of learning more than one thing at a time, but Schuster understands that students are not stupid.
While many college professors may look at Breaking the Rules and cringe, or even cry, I look at it and say "Thank my lucky stars, I could not have done it with out you!" I really cannot say that I have ever enjoyed reading a text book more in my life. If you are a novice writer, or just a little confused with grammar, I definitely recommend reading this book.

for more information click here

Breaking the Rules: A Witty, Engaging Read

"Chatty." "An easy read." "Humorous." These comments seemed to surface again and again in class discussion about this book. The book is an easy read, and the author's personality is evident throughout. While reading the chapters, I never had to set the book aside, as I have had to do with other grammar books. The author's wit, along with his ability to avoid the use of technical jargon, allowed me to flip through the pages with interest and ease.

The intended audience is language arts teachers. However, due to the simplicity of explanations and the numerous examples and activities, this book could be useful for nearly any writer, from middle school to grad school.

Two premises introduced in the first chapter are the "countertradition" and "mythrules." The countertradition basically challenges the notion that "children learn parts of speech by means of definitions" (18). Although it isn't discussed in every chapter, the author does address it often. For example, in chapter two Schuster shares the traditional definition of a noun (a person, place, thing, or idea), and then acknowledges that this traditional definition is inadequate. Mythrules, which the second premise is based on, are "rules that rule no one-other than perhaps a handful of pop-grammarians and hardened purists who look for their authority somewhere in the sky rather than here on earth." (xii) Schuster addresses and negates these so-called rules, such as "Avoid I and me at all costs" in several chapters. The premises seem to provide a solid focus throughout the book.

Although I think this book is an excellent resource overall, Schuster's biases toward certain grammar topics are evident. In one chapter, he shares a traumatic experience he had involving pronouns in tenth grade. He then goes on to discuss pronouns in depth for nearly five pages. Later in the chapter, less than two pages are dedicated to the appositive.

While a more balanced focus on each of the topics would be helpful, I wouldn't exchange this book for another grammar text. Overall, I found it very engaging and helpful, and I would recommend it for any language arts teacher or intermediate to advanced writer.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

Grammar doesn't have to be a stick-in-the-mud subjectstodgy, traditional, and rule bound. Open the pages of Ed Schuster's book and you'll find an energetic, untraditional, creative means of helping students become independent thinkers and more effective writers.

Schuster acknowledges that there ARE bedrock rules of English syntax that should be honored, and offers lesson plans to show how these rules can be taught effectively, in ways that empower students and enable them to write with confidence, authority, and precision. He also examines the history of the other rules, the "myth rules" that are the legacy of traditional school grammartaught for hundreds of years but infrequently followed outside of the classroom, as shown in numerous examples of the best contemporary writing. He devotes his book to better ways of teaching grammar, usage, writing, and punctuation byteaching the unbreakable rules in such a way that they stay taughtdebunking the "myth rules" that are commonly taught in class, but infrequently followed in practicetrusting students' own intuitive sense of grammaticalityappealing to the evidence of the work of his own and others' students and to the best contemporary writing.

"Only look and connect" is the guiding principle of Schuster's book. Look at the results of your teaching; look at the facts of language; look at practices of our best writers, both student and professional; look to see which rules really rule. Then connect what you discover to your teaching practice.

for more information click here

hot