Is Sentence Diagramming Puzzling to You? By Jennifer L. Padgett, M.Ed.

Does sentence diagramming really provide our children with educational advantages in writing, syntax, and vocabulary comprehension?

I can still remember learning how to diagram sentences during my middle school years. One teacher, in particular, insisted that we use a ruler with these diagrams, and she often would threaten to return any assignment in which that rule had not been followed. Of course, being a teenage rebel and appreciating a good challenge, I would often use the edge of my paper—instead of the ruler—to create the lines!

For those of us who shared similar experiences, did we really learn anything about grammar by using this method? Does sentence diagramming really provide our children with educational advantages in writing, syntax, and vocabulary comprehension?

There are parts of education that do require exercises in rote learning. For example, in geography, we have our children memorize the names of the states and capitals; in math, we have them memorize the multiplication table. Regardless of what type of degree one earns in college, theory-based, fundamental classes will be required as part of a course of study. For example, if you were earning a bachelor’s degree in music performance, several music theory classes would be mandatory, and if you were studying to be a doctor, courses in biology and human anatomy would be prerequisites.

While completing my undergraduate work in English education, I was required to take a class about the history and structure of the English language; this class consisted of a study of sentence diagramming, hybrid trees, and linguistics. This class not only provided me with in-depth instruction about how words interact with each other, but I also learned about the functions of words.

In reality, sentence diagrams are just challenging puzzles waiting to be solved! Below are some examples of how one might use the practice of sentence diagramming effectively.

• Example 1: In the school talent show, Ann sang a poetic, heartfelt song.

In the sentence above, many students would be able to identify the three nouns: show, Ann, and song, but would they be able to determine which one is the subject? Or would they assume instead that the word show, the first noun in the sentence, is the subject? After diagramming this sentence, the student would easily be able to see that Ann is the subject of the sentence.

Once the sentence diagram has been completed, we also discover that the words In the school talent show form an adverbial phrase that describes the verb sang. Because learning parts of speech is such an abstract skill, most of our children would benefit from physically manipulating the words to fit into a concrete, sequential diagram.

• Example 2: After the curtain went down, the audience, along with the director, demanded an encore of Sue and (me/I).

Sentences can be quite complex and filled with multiple phrases, which could make selection of the correct pronoun complicated. However, once the sentence has been diagrammed, the basic framework of the sentence is revealed: audience demanded me. Sentence diagramming is a strategy writers can use to solve grammatical errors such as the potential error in Example 2.1

• Example 3: ’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.2

Have you ever come across challenging vocabulary? To discern the meanings of those words, did you use strategies such as looking at the endings of the confusing words or the context in which the puzzling words were located? Other than brillig, which means “the four o’clock time to prepare for dinner,” what are the other two nouns in this example? Toves and wabe are the other nouns. Slithy is the adjective describing toves, and wabe is the object of the preposition in.

Clearly, there is a set pattern to these nonsensical words: the suffixes and the positions of the words definitely aid us in determining the part of speech of each imaginary word. As a result of diagramming these two lines from Carroll’s famous poem, I was able to see how the individual words worked together linguistically, and they created an entertaining meaning: It was four o’clock in the afternoon (’Twas brillig) when the slimy badger-like lizards (slithy toves) were going around in circles (gyre) and making holes (gimble) inside the grassy plot that surrounds a sun dial (wabe).3

• Example 4: Je parle lentement parce que les nouveaux étudiants sont à la table.

Let’s pretend for a moment that you are taking a college-level course in the study of the French language, and the professor has just asked the class to identify the main adjective in the above sentence. Well, the English translation would be written like this: I am speaking slowly because the new students are at the table. Still, unsure whether the word slowly or new is the adjective, you decide to diagram the sentence. Proudly, you discover that new (nouveaux) is the adjective describing the noun students (étudiants).4

Now, granted, the above examples are certainly sophisticated in nature, and some of you may be wondering how to add sentence diagramming to your language arts curriculum. First of all, diagramming should never be taught as an isolated skill but rather as one learned in conjunction with other grammatical concepts.

Children are capable of learning how to diagram sentences during the elementary school years. Below is an example of a typical diagram completed by a second-grader.

• Example 5: The brown dog whined.

Sentence diagramming provides hands-on experiences for children, and the ability to form visual pictures of both grammar and sentence patterns becomes more innate with practice. Use of a curriculum that incorporates diagramming gradually and integrates this skill into the other basics of English grammar is the best choice, in my opinion. A Beka and Rod and Staff are two publishers whose resources use this approach. Here are two free online sites that offer instruction about sentence diagramming: grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/diagrams2/diagrams_frames.htm and wisc-online.com/Objects/ViewObject.aspx?ID=WCN8207. (Accessed August 2012)

Students who have developed problem-solving strategies to uncover “puzzling” sentence diagrams can also use these analytical skills in their personal writing projects. If they have diagrammed consistently, using an array of different sentence patterns including simple to complex in structure, eventually students will internalize these various sentence patterns. These word arrangements become permanently etched into their writing schema, equipping them to devise a unique style of writing. For example, writers who have been sentence

diagrammers will be equipped to examine their sentence patterns to determine if there is redundancy in structure. Well-versed sentence diagrammers have an uncanny ability to quickly identify the sentence parts (syntax), break down challenging or awkward sentences, and effectively move either an individual part of speech or a phrase/clause around to create new sentence structures.

Students who learn how to diagram sentences will also develop a good sense of how to write descriptively simply because they were proficient in learning the parts of speech and learned, via diagramming sentences, how adjectives and adverbs can be used to the greatest advantage. Students can mentally picture the diagrammed sentences and then create and arrange beautiful, sensory groups of words.

In conclusion, sentence diagramming provides our children with another strategy to analyze grammatical errors in writing; interpret parts of speech patterns, including foreign languages; and synthesize contextual meanings of vocabulary. Diagramming sentences, a visual technique, provides children with an alternative means of understanding the English language. And who doesn’t like the challenge of a good puzzle to exercise the brain from time to time?

Endnotes:1. http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/index.htm, accessed April 18, 2012.2. Excerpt from Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky. 3. http://www.ehow.com/how_2279445_teach-parts-speech-using-jabberwocky.html, accessed April 18, 2012. 4. french.about.com/od/grammar/a/partsofspeech.htm, accessed April 19, 2012.

Jennifer L. Padgett, M.Ed. has been a secondary educator in the fields of writing and literacy for eighteen years. When not homeschooling or teaching a night class, Jennifer is pursuing her passions of adoption advocacy and freelance writing. One may read more about her family’s latest adoption journey at padgettadoption.com (Accessed August 2012) or on her new website: thewriteheart.com.

Copyright 2012, used with permission. All rights reserved by author. Originally appeared in the August 2012 issue of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, the family education magazine. Read the magazine free at www.TOSMagazine.com or read it on the go and download the free apps at www.TOSApps.com to read the magazine on your mobile devices.