Rex Barks: Diagramming Sentences Made Easy

by Phyllis Davenport

"...a masterful presentation of grammar--a well-structured, incremental course in diagramming with clear explanations and memorable illustrations of each new principle... Phyllis Davenport understands that if you want to make yourself understood, you need grammar. Her textbook abounds with examples of the ambiguities that result from an ignorance of grammatical rules...The art of diagramming sentences provides students with an indispensable foundation...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1889439355
• ISBN13: 9781889439358
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Paper Tiger, Inc.
• Length: 164 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.3" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Powerhouse of a little book

After reading a couple of highly-touted grammar books and being disappointed, I was thrilled to find this gem of a book. The author does a fantastic job of starting with the basics and building. She includes just enough examples and drills to reinforce the concept. Rex Barks was perfect for me (who couldn't tell you what a participle does or what it looks like). I now can proudly identify all the parts of speech. I highly recommend this book for the grammar beginner. By the end of the book, if you work the examples, the parts of speech will be demystified. I needed this book in order to better help my daughter learn grammar.

Concise yet comprehensive

I have taught from this book, and I love it. Mrs. Davenport's sentences are helpful and lively (which in itself is helpful). It is not merely a manual for a procedure: it is a comprehensive overview of English grammar, and is a fine tool for honing analysis skills. I highly recommend this book.

Drawing on Good Grammar

I look back at Miss Spargo, my high school English teacher, and remember her as OLD, man, really OLD, when she was hardly more than a few years older than I am now! I can still see her erect, school-marmish figure holding forth at the front of the class as she diagrammed sentences relentlessly and ad nauseum. At the time, I found sentence diagramming a bit of a joke. It was only until I was out in the adult world that I realized I was using it almost every time I had something important to write. Oh, I don't mean I was mapping out every last sentence, but I certainly dusted off this arcane skill when I had a sentence that stumped me. Now I think if only this book was a required text in high schools throughout this country, we might be graduating students who are articulate and grammatical, capable of writing and speaking the King's English, instead of stumbling through rudimentary sentences like illiterate third graders. I despair over the future of this wonderful country with the current dumbing down of its educational system and the distressing trend of gauging student performance backwards by letting the poorest students set the bar for the highest. Formerly the school system set standards of excellence that everyone struggled to meet, and those who flunked, flunked. Now a high school diploma means nothing and four years of college is its equivalent. A masters degree is the current equivalent of a former college degree. At one time this country had one of the best school systems in the world. Current statistics show we are ranked as number eleven. Imagine! If there's been a hole in your education, or if you have a child you'd REALLY like to give a leg up, or if you're just plain rusty in the finer points of grammar, this book is all you're going to need. As a summer project, why not take a chapter a week and tutor your children at home with this disappearing key to the art of sound grammatical practice? When is a little enlightenment ever a bad thing? Your kids will think you're nuts now, but thank you when they're older and holding down a corporate job in which they need to write a sensible memo.

Rex Barks teaches you grammar, the best way

I learned more about grammar and writing in the first ten pages than I did in 8 years of a Masters degree in English. This is a must have for all teachers or anyone who wants to understand the English language.

27 years of efficacy

Mrs. Davenport was my tenth-grade English teacher and we were the first class to use this book in class. She was great and the experience helped me learn writing and editing skills that I am using today as a professional writer. I always assumed that everyone got the same kind of education, but I see evidence to the contrary on a regular basis. Also, I can still recite Hamlet's soliliquy and the preamble to the Constitution. If you don't have access to Mrs. Davenport, at least you can still benefit from her book. I would recommend this book for students of any age who want to master the basics of English once and for all.