Write for 5 – 6 minutes, explaining which of these passages best represents your own feelings about grammar and its role both in and out of school:

1. Grammar multiple choice questions actually comprise 70 percent of the 800 new points [on the writing section of the new SAT exam]. My students are universally surprised to hear that the dreaded essay they've heard so much about is worth less than 10 percent of their total score.

This is cause for celebration. The world of standardized testing is murky open to accusations of bias and subjectivity, particularly on the verbal side. But grammar is English done math-style. It's standardized. It's fair to test. No determining which answer is "more true." "There's a right and a wrong answer," says [high school] junior Eileen Clapp of Oakland.

Emma Pollin, EastBay Express (Aug. 16, 2006).

2. Do you remember the traditional school definition of a noun? It's the name of a person, place or thing. . . . How about the word "explosion?" Now can you see why kids get mixed up? . . . . it's partly because the definitions are so vague. Think about this: The definition of sentence in traditional grammar is something like, "It's a complete thought. It starts with a capital and ends with a period, and it represents a complete thought." Now, I don't know how you know when a thought is complete. If I say, "There's a chair in my room, period," everybody'll say, "That's a complete thought." I say, "No, not if I was thinking of other things as well." I don't like that. I think that's a terribly confusing and even hurtful definition. . . . A course in grammar isn't going to make any --- I think grammar probably makes it less likely that kids will learn anything.

George Hillocks, Atlanta Constitution (April 9, 2006).