Grammar

Before taking English 242, I had very little practice breaking down sentences into grammatical terms. I remember learning the terms fairly early on in elementary school and then relearning them in seventh grade, but I never had to apply that knowledge consistently enough to solidify it all in my mind. After a few weeks of grammar drills, the subject was never brought up by my teachers again.

However, during my last few years of high school and now on into college, I have begun to appreciate the basic rules of language that allow us to communicate with others so effectively. I cannot help but wonder how such an organized system was developed—through all its complexities, language is as fascinating as it is beautiful. Language allows us to take an idea, thought, or emotion and communicate it to others across a table or across centuries, so in my mind, it is hard not to appreciate its roots. Although learning grammatical terminology may at times seem unnecessary and painful, I believe that having such knowledge and being able to understand it well enough to break down language to its fundamental composition can only improve one’s ability to communicate. Just as a painter must understand the attributes of her medium in order to use it to reach her desired outcome, so must writers and speakers understand their language in order to convey thoughts as they are intended. However, knowing the colors and textures of paints is not enough for the artist—she must also understand how the individual paints react around one another, how they act together, and what new traits emerge. By doing so, the painter is able to slowly master her art, just as a writer or speaker who develops a more thorough understanding of the workings of language is able to gain more control over it.

All in all, I guess what I am trying to say is that I really appreciate language—grammar included. Although working to improve my knowledge of grammatical terminology may leave me feeling a little frustrated at times, I believe the end result has hidden benefits that will make having such an understanding far from useless.