Breaking the Rules: Liberating Writers Through Innovative Grammar Instruction

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.

This is an easily read book concerning the rules of grammar. It is about rules and how a writer could possibly break those rules. Its intention is not to break the rules, but rather to inform the reader about these rules and the reasons behind them: "...how well kids write is their self confidence. Self confidence in writing is not fostered by insisting that students must learn rules before they may break them." This book seems to be a rather new book, and reflects the society of today with its laid back nature and easy read. The audience of this book should probably be middle and high school teachers, and possibly a grammar class at the university level. I like this book and will probably keep it on a resource shelf to refer to as I teach elementary school.

Breaking the Rules by Edgar H. Schuster is an over all great book. I would recommend this book to anyone new to grammar or who is just looking to quickly refresh the basics of grammar. Although written in laymen's terms and easily understood Breaking the Rules is not as thorough as other grammar books I have read. Beginner grammar learners would enjoy this book because it is easy to read and understand. It also uses basic straightforward terminology. ("The subject of a sentence ...has been defined as the part that tells what the sentence is about." p40). Anyone looking to briefly review grammar terms would also enjoy Breaking the Rules because it is clearly laid out. The term to be learned is in bold then defined. Following the definition are examples and then an activities that could be used to teach the term. Each activity has a goal and a procedure clearly laid out. Although Breaking the Rules is a great book for grammar it could be a little more thorough. The examples are easily understood but only a few examples are given for each topic and not all possible instances are reviewed. For instance, for subjects of sentences there are only four examples given, and then the same examples are used in the activity. Breaking the Rules is a refreshing way to look at grammar without all of the technical terms and in depth descriptions. So if you're a beginner or are a little rusty on your grammar I would recommend this book to you. Although if you are knowledgeable already in the basics of grammar I would recommend a more challenging book on grammar, for instance Grammar for Language Arts Teachers by Alice Calderonello, Virginia Martin, and Kristine Blair.

This book is exciting, invigorating, and refreshing. If those responsible for training the next generation of English teachers would use this book in their methods classes, schools would see an increase in teachers ready to provide 'reality' based language and composition learning experiences. If every school administrator were required to read the book, he/she would place in every classroom teachers ready for "Liberating Writers." Present English teachers who read the book will find either affirmation of their current practices of different ways to look at old practices, or both.Ed Schuster is no johnny-come-lately to either English education or innovative thought considering the teaching of English grammar and composition. Over the past forty years he has been a sought-after presenter at both state and national English conventions; his articles began appearing in "The English Journal" in 1962. He contended then and contends now that traditional school grammar stifles English learning, inhibits the development of solid communications skills, and repudiates its stated goals. His introduction begins: "Most people think students break rules aplenty. Why encourage them?" His reply reflects his own classroom practice: "to help them become independent thinkers and more effective communicators."In chapter one, "Language Acquisition and Traditional English Grammar, Schuster clearly and forcefully enunciates his hypothesis: "Traditional school grammar, traditionally taught, is a staggering, Pentagonesque waste of time and money." He does not just fling out empty claims. He reviews the literature on language teaching and learning from 1604 to the time of John Warriner up to the present Warriner clones. His bibliography shows the pedigree of his thesis: Sapir, Jesperson, Donald Murray, Fries, Shaughnessy, Hairston, Sledd, Blau, and Elbow, a veritable who's who of language theory over the past seventy years.The rest of the chapters are equally thorough. Chapter two examines "Definitions That Do Not Define." Chapter three reviews "Rules That Do Not Rule (and a Few That Do)." Chapter four, "Writing: Liberating the Student Writers," proposes methods for utilizing periodicals, novels, and newspapers as models to help students, by studying 'real' writers, maximize their own writing and language/grammar skills. No, Schuster does NOT ignore grammar; rather, he thinks traditional school grammar non-useful. Chapter five, "Punctuation Today," suggests new ways of using traditional punctuation to make more effective writers.In these five chapters, Schuster moves from what was and is (Traditional School Grammar) to what is and could be (the Reflective Teacher) in the teaching and learning and utilizing of "effective communication."

No one could be happier than I to have come across Dr. Edgar Schuster's marvelous book. I'm a professor of creative writing and composition at a small university out West, as well as having been an ESL instructor for many years. In my eleven years experience as a teacher at the university level, no book has ever so eloquently and straightforwardly addressed the challenges of effective grammar usage. I've already begun recommending it to my colleagues in the English department. Schuster's book will certainly garner the high praise it deserves, for it is written by an expert (Schuster is a former Master Teacher at Harvard) who, with laymen's terms, places three questions at the fore: 1)What are the myths of grammar usage? 2)What rules are unbreakable? 3)How do we teach students to use their innate grammatical sense? One chapter, which I am currently teaching to my freshman comp students, has already made clear for them (and for me) the five basic instances in which a comma is appropriate. I cannot say how much this book has helped my teaching and my own understanding of the "myth rules" and the "unbreakable rules." I'm indebted to Schuster for making me, in the short time it took to read his book, a better teacher.