Grammar by Diagram: Understanding English Grammar Through Traditional Sentence Diagraming

by Cindy L. Vitto

Grammar by Diagram, second edition is a book designed for anyone who wishes to improve grammatical understanding and skill. Using traditional sentence diagraming as a visual tool, the book explains how to expand simple sentences into compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences, and how to employ verbals (infinitives, gerunds, and participles) and other structures for additional variety.

The text addresses the most frequent usage errors by explaining how to distinguish between adjectives and adverbs; how to avoid problems of pronoun case, agreement, and consistency; how to ensure that verbs will agree with their subjects and will be appropriate in terms of tense, aspect, voice, and mood; and how to phrase sentences to avoid errors in parallelism or placement of modifiers. Six appendices incorporate further exercises, a summary of key basics from the text, and supplemental material not included in the body of the text but useful for quick reference. This new edition includes additional exercises and has been revised and updated throughout.

Genres: Nonfiction, Textbooks, School, Writing, Education, Reference

453 pages, Spiral-bound

First published May 9, 2003

Reviews

[Corey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't studied grammar in nearly 20 years. I needed a serious refresher, but I knew I couldn't learn from a traditional, dry English grammar textbook. I am a visual learner, so I thought I would try sentence diagramming.

Grammar topics that were once incomprehensible became easy to understand once put into the perspective of sentence diagramming. Nothing was left out of the textbook. It included lessons on independent clauses, dependent clauses, complex sentences, compound structures, compound sentences, prepositional phrases, noun clauses, adverb clauses, relative clauses, gerunds, participles, infinitives, and appositives. Advanced topics included cleft sentences, anticipatory appositives, sentence appositives, and more.

And it took all those concepts and explained them within the context of just 10 different sentence structures. It's still a lot to learn and a lot to retain, but it was finally easy to understand.

For the first time in my life, I feel like I can confidently write using the rules of English grammar.

[Alisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used this book as a textbook for my Traditional English Grammar class. This book is very helpful when you need to look up the rules of grammar and such. It even shows you how to diagram the sentences as you go through learning the process.

[Lauren E. Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

The textbook and accompanying workbook are incredibly easy to understand and both are written with an excellent progression of concepts. I never learned most of this information, and never diagrammed a sentence in my life, but these books have made it fun and easy to understand! I enjoy working in them so much I'm considering teaching just so I can help others love grammar too. As a side note, I also really appreciate the sociological commentary on use of standard English as a potential method of shaming and oppression. The author is sure to give appreciation for dialects and everyday slang as fodder for the change, growth, and sustainability of English.

[Katrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nerd alert! I loved this book! A good challenge. I bought it to brush up on my skills and it was a wonderful refresher course.

[Erika · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a course textbook for a Grammar class, not a book I would ever read for fun. I am not a fan of diagramming at all, and I do not plan on using that method in the future, but the other things in this book were beneficial. I will probably use this for reference in the future when writing, but that's about it.

[Anna]

Okay, so I didn’t actually read the entire thing but I am so good at diagramming sentences now 😎

[Dainius Šileika · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book could be your first book on grammar and sentence diagramming, but it is not quite in depth enough to be your only book.

Vitto does a good job alternating between prescriptive and descriptive chapters, and having finished this book, you will have a good general sense of grammar and be reasonably skilled in diagramming. However, to really get the most out of it, you will probably have to go through the workbook instead, something that I resent as I believe a textbook should have enough exercises to train its reader.

Having finished this book, you should read Semmelmeyr's "Practical English" to get a deeper understanding of grammar, and "Drawing Sentences," by Moutoux, to feel more comfortable diagramming any sentence that you might find.

[Matthew Gilbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be honest, I put this in my Goodreads list to make sure I finished the book. This book was a required text for my grammar/diagramming class. Overall it really helped me understand how sentence structure works, which has been a huge note for me in my writing throughout my college career, from both professors and in critique groups from fellow students. There were some things that Vitto explained that were more confusing than they probably should have been, my professor said she was trying to make grammar accessible by explaining simply and in turn is making it more confusing. So, that is something to be aware of. Otherwise, a great way to learn grammar, specifically diagramming.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had never diagrammed sentences before. To be honest, I also did not fully understand all of these terms and rules beforehand, but this textbook was a great help. I think it is much easier to learn grammar with the visual aid of diagrams. This textbook clearly outlines how to diagram and helped me feel that I can grasp the concepts of grammar. I particularly love the fact that I can reference the exercises and answers in the back of the book.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, the accompanying workbook, and my skilled teacher all worked together to guide me safely through the treacherous waters of a college grammar and editing course.

In the course of the semester I learned that I prefer the use of nouns over pronouns (far too much ambiguity in pronouns), and that diagramming verbals is my academic nemesis.

The text was helpful, detailed without being boring, unpretentious, and encouraging.

[Victoria]

I read this for my Understanding Grammar course this past fall semester. It was probably the most useful of the three texts we had in my opinion. Also, I felt like it was very informative and helped me a lot throughout the course to get a handle on what we were taking and learning about. Also, I actually kind of had fun diagramming— at first they looked super hard, but when I actually did them, I loved the logic to them.

[Kim Torre-Tasso · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful workbook in the lost art of sentence diagramming. I progressed slowly through the book and strengthened my grammar skills. A very useful text! I also appreciated the intro material, especially the history lesson of the English language!

[Debbie Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent resource for grammar.

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most comprehensive and practical book on grammar on the market. The exercises are helpful.

[Tracy Challis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Necessary for anyone who teaches grammar.

[Akila Munroe]

It was very educational

[Manar Tomeh]

I owe this book so much!

[Lacey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this textbook cover to cover for a class. It’s a grammar textbook with solid information.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purposely waited until my last semester to take the grammar class that was required for my degree. Grammar makes me mad. I have dealt with too many teachers who do not care about how well people use words but only how they punctuate a sentence. I like Creative Writing and I prefer the liberties that it allows. I will still break the rules all the time, but now I will break them in defiance rather than ignorance. I knew all the parts of speech and basic grammar rules, but I feel stupid admitting that I had never diagrammed a sentence, and there were terms in this book that I had never even heard before. I have gotten an A on every paper I have ever written in college, so clearly grammar comes somewhat naturally to people who speak English, but I have to admit that it is actually cool to know and understand the hows and whys. Knowing some of this would have helped me greatly as I have edited papers for my peers over the years. I would just tell them something didn't sound right and now I could throw fancy words like dangling participle at them to explain why it didn't sound right. I went in kicking and screaming about how we do not need comma commandments, and I left this class thinking that we need to be doing a better job teaching grammar in the school system. I also hate to admit this, but diagramming sentences is actually kind of fun for those of us in the super dork crowd.

[Jay Budzilowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my textbook for a college level grammar course. I found the book very thorough and helpful and I will probably hang on to it as a reference. If I actually enjoyed grammar, I would probably rate this book higher. While I understand the use for diagramming sentences, I hope I never diagram another sentence in my lifetime.

[estherbookster · Rating 5 out of 5]

A college book for my English course, but the only book where I truly understood the structures of grammar. Highly recommend, even if you won't apply all the principles and rules. I wouldn't always apply it but it helps to understand how the English language breaks down and diagrams itself.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Refreshing my memory on diagramming sentences to have an editor's workshop. Book has plenty of exercises and is exactly what I wanted. I have a library copy, but I may purchase my own copy.