Tag Archives: Grammar

The Singular “They” Is Here to Stay

The singular “they” is on the verge of becoming accepted in formal writing. It’s a development I approve of (if language never changed, I should have said “of which I approve”), and to celebrate I share a Philip Levine poem that makes imaginative use of the word “they.”

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Back in the Day, We Parsed Sentences

Time was when grammar was king in the public schools. It didn’t seem to matter whether a student’s writing was interesting but whether it was correct. Then came the “process writing movement” and (in the lower grades) the “creative spelling movement.” The design was to unlock the writing energies that were being stifled by an […]

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