If you were in school before 1970, this book might bring back memories—especially of standing at the blackboard, chalk in hand, trying to diagram a sentence while your teacher watched.
In episode 141 of the Life Writers Vlog, I talk about Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences by Kitty Burns Florey.
It’s a funny and fascinating look at the lost art of diagramming sentences, something Florey fell in love with as a sixth-grader.
The book shares the diagram’s quirky history, starting in 1877, and walks through examples from the simple “The dog barked” to Marcel Proust’s ninety-three-word sentence from Remembrance of Things Past. Florey calls diagramming “a picture of language,” and it really does feel like part art, part logic puzzle.
Diagramming faded from classrooms in the 1960s and was officially discouraged by 1985 by the National Council of Teachers of English, but some teachers still use it, such as the woman who wrote this article.
Were you a fan or a foe of diagramming sentences? Either way, try diagramming a sentence for fun—just for extra credit. Write your sentence, diagram it, take a picture, and post your sentence in the comments section below.
But whether you were a fan of diagramming sentences or not, always remember, the only way to do this wrong is to not do it at all!
I don’t know whether or not diagramming sentences helped to make me a better writer, but I used to enjoy the challenge. The only thing I hated about the process was that my diagrams always looked messy: the lines were never straight, and the words always looked like scribbles. I aspired to match the examples my teachers put up on the board, neat and legible, but I never managed it. Most of the rules have faded from my memory, thank goodness! It never seemed to me to have anything to do with writing; it was just a puzzle I enjoyed,… Read more »
Hated!
I absolutely LOVED learning how to diagram sentences. It helped me immensely with my grammar and writing. In my opinion, they should continue this practice in schools because today’s young adults seem to have horrible grammar.
Oh my God, Patricia. Why did you remind us! I hated to diagram sentences!!!!!!! Glad it was outlawed. Needless to say, the only way to do this is…you know the rest of this.
Thank God they did nit teach us that in Soviet Union. It would have destroyed my already low self esteem. We also did not have this strange animal, called “article, which still gives me headache these days.. ha ha.