I found these articles very pertinent to my recent questions about grading/commenting/editing. We already had a discussion on this, but I’m still questioning how to teach prescriptive language and how to make editing suggestions on students’ writing styles. I agree that an obsession over grammar and syntax in commenting is needlessly policing if not dumb on the instructor’s end. But at the same time, we have to teach grammar and standard English. I loved how Smitherman brings up Critical Language Awareness pedagogy as one way forward, a pedagogy that seeks to “develop in students a critical consciousness about language, power, and society” as they learn standardized English. Coining and using the word “Language of Wider Communication” (LWC; aka, “Dominant English,” “Standardized English,” “American Standard English,” “Correct English”) itself helps to raise the consciousness of the politics underneath our academic endeavor.
My question: theory aside, how much should we teach grammar/syntax/style in class to equip students with apt skills to write in prescriptive language?