English 3200

At the last wine writers symposium, I spent about 20 minutes talking with a writing coach. This appointment is part of the services available at the symposium. I asked him about ways to improve my writing, including mastering grammar mechanics. "English 3200," he said immediately. "Most of us got cheated on grammar in school," he explained. "The full spectrum of grammar is rarely taught well anymore, and we've all missed out."

English 3200 is a book, and there seem to be three tiers. 3200 assumes that you know about nouns and verbs and adjectives and punctuation, but it starts off with subjects and predicates. The teaching format is one I haven't experienced before—a self-paced "programmed" course. There isn't a large explanation followed by exercises. Instead, a constant barrage of exercises, each simple on its own but complex in aggregate, incorporate the lecture material. You look at their question, answer, and then see the correct answer on the next page, adjacent to the next exercise. Instant feedback. Constant reinforcement.

Supposedly, this unusual format helps you retain the material, but only time will tell. But am I learning grammar? Even in exercises that describe subjects and predicates? Within the first three exercises, I've gotten better about understanding linking verbs, and I found a flaw in an OWF sentence, where I changed the subject to be more in tune with the verb (the sentence didn't make the final cut of the post, but I found it an interesting moment of self-observation; I doubt I would have noticed it before).

You can do one lesson in about 15 minutes, and I've committed to one lesson a day. Just as I can sacrifice five minutes a week for Grammar Girl, I can sacrifice 15 minutes a day to educate myself about the nuances of grammar that I've missed before. I believe that you can't have art without craft, and grammar represents the mechanics of writing. So far, English 3200 looks like a solid teacher.