Hartwell, Patrick. “Grammar, Grammars, and the Teaching of Grammar.” Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, edited by Victor Villanueva and Kristin L. Arola, National Council of Teachers of English, 2011, pp. 205-233.

In the article, “Grammar, Grammars, and the Teaching of Grammar,” Patrick Hartwell notes the debate among the those who believe that teaching grammar is essential to pedagogy, and those who believe teaching grammar is not an effective pedagogical strategy: “the grammar issue is itself embedded in larger models of the transmission of literacy, part of quite different assumptions about the teaching of composition” (208). Hartwell supports his notation by reviewing the “five meanings of grammar,” and the research of many of his peers. His purpose is to examine the grammar debate in a different way in order to present the findings in a way that he believes is more productive . His argument is directed at fellow teachers. As a student and possible future teacher, I found his argument a little veiled at first. To be fair, he did state his position on the subject from the first sentence; however, I felt as though he tried hard to be neutral, and failed in the attempt, but I did agree with his conclusions around the grammar issue.