Grammar By Diagram - Second Edition Workbook: Understanding English Grammar Through Traditional Sentence Diagraming

I was aware of that before ordering, but If you skim through the reviews you would think that this book has it all. It does not. It's a companion for a textbook by the same name. I would not have ordered this if it weren't for the glowing reviews here. My mistake, but most of the reviews here are for the textbook and not this workbook--I don't want others thinking they are getting something they are not. I'm ordering the textbook now and will update this review soon. I need to thank reviewer Don V for the tip to search for 1551117789--that will bring up the textbook when searching Amazon.UPDATE--I've purchased the textbook and have had a chance to go through it, so I wanted to update my star rating for this. I like this supplement for the textbook; it provides some quality exercises to help further expand the concepts explained in the book. Just be sure you don't solely order this expecting it to be the complete textbook.

In the spring of 2007, I found myself standing in front of a class of very bright high school honors students who were asking me to teach them grammar: "Teach us grammar!" they begged. "No one has ever taught us grammar!" It has now been exactly five years since that strange request, and that is why I want to leave this comment today, that, and the pile of papers to grade that I am trying my very best to ignore.I had never received such a strange request, and frankly, I was somewhat embarrassed by it, even perplexed, for I had never really been formally and systematically taught grammar. I did not know how to do it. All I could do was turn to some lame, hit-and-miss worksheets. How should I teach them to dig into language, to grasp its complexity? I did not know where to begin.I knew much about "the writing process" from Donald Murray and how to help students with their language within the context of their writing, as Constance Weaver had taught me, but I did not know where to begin with a formal, systematic instruction in grammar. In my heart and in spite of what I had been taught in my progressive Education classes, I knew that this ironic circumstance was the equivalent of a high school chemistry teacher being asked to teach about molecules and not having the ability to do so. It was not a proud moment for me.Years earlier I had graduated with honors from a state university here in Michigan, where I had earned a degree in English and a Michigan teaching certificate. But let me tell you a dirty little secret: In spite of our certifications and diplomas, most American English teachers today do not know grammar because, even if they had wanted to teach us, our teachers did not know grammar. I was the product - we were products - of an educational system with deep holes and flaws which had been around since misguided hippy-dippy English professors had brushed aside the first Liberal Art in favor of progressive fads and specious nonsense.During this rather awkward time of trying to teach my docile and long-suffering honors students, I stumbled upon two texts that eventually changed my teaching career: The War Against Grammar by David Mulroy, which explained to me why I did not know grammar, and Cindy Vitto's two fine books, Grammar by Diagram (Second Edition) and Grammar by Diagram: Workbook.Over the course of the next few years, I taught myself grammar - daily - with Cindy's amazingly clear and succinct books, and now, alas, have a silly family, nerds all, which loves to determine which of Dr. Vitto's ten sentence patterns comes in the sentences contained in our Chinese fortune cookies. At least from my experience, I would say that Gertrude Stein was right; diagramming is great fun, so much so, that I eventually recommended Grammar by Diagram to my buddy Dan, a professor at Hillsdale College who teaches classes on grammar. Dan now uses Dr. Vitto's texts in his classes, and there is usually a waiting list to get into those classes.Now I almost always seek to understand and articulate the structure of the sentences that I read, using diagraming as a tool. I do it automatically. Diagramming reveals to me my ignorance; it makes what I do not know explicit. It points me to the sentences that I do not fully comprehend, the syntactic puzzles that I need to solve, and now I am driven to grasp and understand them all, so I can use language to discuss language with my students.These books have helped this one-time embarrassed and perplexed high school English teacher to learn grammar, and for that, I owe Cindy Vitto my deepest gratitude. Back in 2007, I bought at least a half dozen books from Amazon as I tried to teach myself grammar, and there was not one single book that has come close to hers in quality. They are succinct, clear, and always helpful.That is why I am taking this break, when I should be grading the piles of papers that are now screaming at me from across the room: I want to pass on my deepest and sincere gratitude to Cindy for her fine books. And no, I will not pour over this comment, looking for ironic grammatical problems or even spelling errors. I chiefly want to say thanks to her.Pax,Tim

This exact product is listed in two different ways at Amazon which makes it very confusing. One listing says it's the workbook and the other says it's the textbook only. So, I ordered them both. The same exact item was shipped. I was led to believe that I was ordering the textbook with the accompanying workbook. Please note that the workbook is not a stand-alone product. You must order the textbook to accompany it or the workbook exercises will not make any sense. So, I had to ship one of the workbooks back. Then after researching further I found the textbook at another site [...] since Amazon did not have it. The text book is $46.95. I feel it was a lot of money to spend, having to buy both items. It is very in-depth, however, teaching all the detailed parts of speech such as; reflexive, nominative, objective, and possessive nouns, indefinite, reciprocal, interrogative, demonstrative, and relative pronouns, etc.... If you're looking for something more concise and direct consider buying  Rex Barks: Diagramming Sentences Made Easy . It's a simple way to get down the basics.

I have read and used several books on diagramming. This book is the best I have seen so far. The grammar section at the beginning is thorough. The author even has a quick page on parsing. The text and layout make the book easy to read and use. Everything I have to say is positive. Diagramming with this book's help is an amazing method to see language as more than words thrown together.I also recommend Rex Barks for additional practice and another way to look at parts of speech. Everything a squirrel can do to a tree is a great way to remember prepositions. Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog makes a nice introduction to diagramming and discusses the history of diagramming, but doesn't really teach it.

Good accompaniment to Vitto’s textbook. Exercises are very useful and all answers are in back of text.

I need to pass the California CBEST writing test. I passed it yesterday! The book is really useful for preparing the exam!

Great book in the spiral binder is perfect because I use it on a daily basis for my English course in college.

Was not what I expected it to be. . .I didn't realize it wasn't the text!

The best book I have ever brought. Buyer will not be disappointed. It is best to buy both books, the workbook and study book. I thank you Cindy Vitto.

This is a excellent book. I got two. There both good books and I like the ring binding on it.