Topic: Terminology in the Curriculum

10-second review: How does terminology get in the way of teaching and learning? Author “demystifies" math by changing formal terminology in math to terms that more clearly relate to the concept: For example, why use "percentages"when "hundredths" would do?

Source: Review of Demathtifying: Demystifying Mathematics by L Samson. Reviewed by JW Lott. The Mathematics Teacher (February 2005), 446. A publication of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM).

Comment: Consider doing the same in English grammar. Why not "—ing verb" for "gerund," etc. I know that I have used successfully an approach to punctuation that I read long ago, the three most important uses of the comma: after “introductory expressions,” around “interrupting expressions” and before “afterthoughts.”

Look at all of the grammatical terms used to describe “introductory expressions”: “direct address,” “prepositional phrases,” “verbal/gerundial/participial phrases,” “infinitive phrases,” “subordinate clauses,” etc. I have found that the term “introductory expressions” helps to simplify and clarify this use of the comma. Grammatical terminology only adds clutter and confusion to the procedure for separating the introductory expression from the rest of the sentence.

“Interrupters" include “direct address,” the “appositive” and “relative” or “Parenthetical” clauses.

“Afterthoughts”: The technical grammatical term for an “afterthought” is an “absolute,” an isolated construction. Many years ago, when people in English worried about defining a “mature” writing style, I read an article suggesting that the outstanding trait of mature writing was the frequent use of absolutes. Absolutes do seem to be plentiful in sophisticated and scholarly materials. The term "Afterthoughts" is a much clearer description of the concept than "absolute."

By the way, I need to give credit for the terminology—“introductory expressions,” “interrupters,” and “afterthoughts”—to a short note in an old copy of the National Council of Teachers of English quarterly publication, College Composition and Communication. A college—Susquehanna?—used these terms in describing what they had discovered to be the most frequent uses of the comma from an analysis of published writing. I remember the terms, but no longer have the issue of the publication, nor do I know how to find the information, which was added to fill space at the end of an article. For me, that terminology has been one of the most useful tools for teaching punctuation I have ever found.

It would be fun to go through grammatical terminology to see if we could find more descriptive words. Grammatical terminology is probably the most difficult and abstract reason, jargon, that distracts students from learning English grammar—that and the fact that grammatical information has very little application as it does in foreign languages. RayS.