MGED 3033 - Teaching Linguistics and Writing in Middle Grades Education

Credits: 3

This course will focus on a systematic and rigorous approach to the structure of contemporary English. Students will examine the usage issues (including problems with the sentence, punctuation, and agreement) and their underlying sources (language change, language attitudes, and the notion of Standard English). Additionally, this course will trace the effects of stylistic, regional, and social variation on English usage.

The course also focuses on the three fundamental issues underlying all errors of grammatical usage: the notion of Standard English, the effects of language change on English grammar, and the effects of language attitudes on our ideas of “correct” English. This course will be of interest not only to English, education, journalism and technical writing students, but also anyone who wishes to improve his/her editing and proofreading abilities.