In a college-level grammar class.
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And save your textbook for the long-term. It'll come in handy over and over and over throughout your writing career. 
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Bartholomew,
How fun! Nobody knows every single thing about grammar, so we could all learn something. I agree to keep your textbook, because you will probably use it from now on.
How fun! Nobody knows every single thing about grammar, so we could all learn something. I agree to keep your textbook, because you will probably use it from now on.
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My grammar class in college was the single worst class I have ever had, at any level, including the classes where I'd come home and cry because I didn't know what the hell was going on and effort wasn't paying off.
Everyone in the class failed the midterm. The professor went over it point by point in the next three classes. I took good notes and tried hard to comprehend what the hell he was talking about, but didn't. I was lucky, because the final was the midterm all over again, word for word, and I got an A by barfing up my notes without comprehension, giving me a B (on a curve) for the class. That means a lot of us flunked it the second time, too.
Oddly, I consider myself fairly good at grammar, but not a whole lot more advanced than my skills at the time I took that class. To this day, I have no idea what the professor was talking about. The now-Maryn would call him on it.
Maryn, derailing--do carry on!
Everyone in the class failed the midterm. The professor went over it point by point in the next three classes. I took good notes and tried hard to comprehend what the hell he was talking about, but didn't. I was lucky, because the final was the midterm all over again, word for word, and I got an A by barfing up my notes without comprehension, giving me a B (on a curve) for the class. That means a lot of us flunked it the second time, too.
Oddly, I consider myself fairly good at grammar, but not a whole lot more advanced than my skills at the time I took that class. To this day, I have no idea what the professor was talking about. The now-Maryn would call him on it.
Maryn, derailing--do carry on!
My first year grammar classes in college were pathetic. All I knew abut grammar when I entered college was what I taught myself after I started writing, but I may as well have been back in eighth grade. But as basic as they were, about sixty percent of the freshmen still couldn't handle them, and had to take remedial English. I can't imagine what those classes must have been like.
The one first year class I considered fairly difficult was called, I think, "Grammar In Theory and Composition.
Everything we did in that class was pretty simple to grade. You started with an A. One grammar or punctuation mistake in any composition dropped you to a B. A second mistake dropped you to a C. One more and you had a D. The fourth mistake and it was a great big F.
No one came out of that class with an A. Most flunked it in short order.
But it was the second year before we got into the really tough English courses.
The one first year class I considered fairly difficult was called, I think, "Grammar In Theory and Composition.
Everything we did in that class was pretty simple to grade. You started with an A. One grammar or punctuation mistake in any composition dropped you to a B. A second mistake dropped you to a C. One more and you had a D. The fourth mistake and it was a great big F.
No one came out of that class with an A. Most flunked it in short order.
But it was the second year before we got into the really tough English courses.
English majors at my university had to take a senior-level grammar course or a course about the history of the English language. I was more interested in current grammar, so I went that route.
We learned parts of speech and then diagrammed sentences. That was the most-challenging English class I took, but I learned so many useful things and kept the textbook ("Understanding English Grammar") because I like it so much.
We learned parts of speech and then diagrammed sentences. That was the most-challenging English class I took, but I learned so many useful things and kept the textbook ("Understanding English Grammar") because I like it so much.
Bart see if you can find a copy of Latin Grammar for English students, and George O. Curme's A Grammar of the English Language: Volumes I & II.
The library almost certainly has it.
Also, for when your brain hurts: David Crystal Encyclopedia of the English Language.
You don't want to know how many grammar classes I've taken, not to mention classes on morphology, phonology and syntax.
The library almost certainly has it.
Also, for when your brain hurts: David Crystal Encyclopedia of the English Language.
You don't want to know how many grammar classes I've taken, not to mention classes on morphology, phonology and syntax.
In high school, I learned more about about grammar learning Russian then any of my English classes. The teacher took the time to explain tenses, conjugations, prepositional phrases, all those fancy things the English teachers never thought to bring up.
Most English teachers take 'simple terms' for granted. Students know what a preposition is because they use them all the time.
I drive a car all the time to, it doesn't mean I know how it works...
Most English teachers take 'simple terms' for granted. Students know what a preposition is because they use them all the time.
I drive a car all the time to, it doesn't mean I know how it works...