GRAMMARMAKESITEASIER

Heather gave a very refreshing lesson that reminded me of why we take so much time learning the dreaded grammar rules. I have to admit that I am one of the many people that have a lot of trouble with grammar and find myself complaining whenever I have to do yet another worksheet on the placement of commas or the naming of phrases. This lesson was a little different and gave me a perspective on grammar that I had never used before. A simple sentence was written on the board and we were told to take all the grammar out of it. At first, we all took out the comma and the period, but then we took out the capital letters, the phrase at the beginning of the sentence, the spaces, and the letters. When we were done, there was nothing left. We were, then, given a worksheet that had a paragraph written in all caps, without any spaces, periods, comma, etc. For me, this was the most interesting part of the lesson. Of course, the paragraph was very hard to read, but this was not just a ridiculous exercise. This style of writing was used in Ancient Greece, but, over time, grammar was introduced to make it easier for the reader to comprehend the meaning of the written word. Along with this lesson, we learned how grammar can change the meaning of a sentence. Therefore, I will try not to complain when we have another grammar lesson and keep in mind the reasons that we spend so much time trying to perfect it.