Mapping your sentences

Dec 2, 2006

On NPR this morning, Scott Simon interviewed the author of a new book about sentence diagrams.

Recently, as I was waiting to cross the street on my way to work, I was thinking about how I’d learned to diagram sentences at Good Hope School on St. Croix, where I spent seventh and eighth grades.

One day between classes, I saw a stately white-haired man walking the school grounds. A teacher mentioned that the distinguished gentleman was a member of the board of trustees of the school, and that he also happened to be the author of the book that was teaching us how to diagram sentences, Warriner’s English Grammar and Composition.

If I could diagram my lifelong love of language and reading and writing, that fleeting glimpse of John Warriner and the lessons his books taught me would have to be represented.

Anton Zuiker ☄