Is Sentence Diagramming Puzzling to You?

By Jennifer L. Padgett, M.Ed.

Does sentence diagramming really provide our children with educational advantages in
writing, syntax, and vocabulary comprehension?

I can still remember learning how to diagram sentences during my middle school years. One
teacher, in particular, insisted that we use a ruler with these diagrams, and she often would
threaten to return any assignment in which that rule had not been followed. Of course,
being a teenage rebel and appreciating a good challenge, I would often use the edge of my
paperinstead of the rulerto create the lines!

For those of us who shared similar experiences, did we really learn anything about grammar
by using this method? Does sentence diagramming really provide our children with
educational advantages in writing, syntax, and vocabulary comprehension?

There are parts of education that do require exercises in rote learning. For example, in
geography, we have our children memorize the names of the states and capitals; in math,
we have them memorize the multiplication table. Regardless of what type of degree one
earns in college, theory-based, fundamental classes will be required as part of a course of
study. For example, if you were earning a bachelors degree in music performance, several
music theory classes would be mandatory, and if you were studying to be a doctor, courses
in biology and human anatomy would be prerequisites.

While completing my undergraduate work in English education, I was required to take a
class about the history and structure of the English language; this class consisted of a study
of sentence diagramming, hybrid trees, and linguistics. This class not only provided me with
in-depth instruction about how words interact with each other, but I also learned about the
functions of words.

In reality, sentence diagrams are just challenging puzzles waiting to be solved! Below are
some examples of how one might use the practice of sentence diagramming effectively.

Example 1: In the school talent show, Ann sang a poetic, heartfelt song.

In the sentence above, many students would be able to identify the three nouns: show,
Ann, and song, but would they be able to determine which one is the subject? Or would
they assume instead that the word show, the first noun in the sentence, is the subject?
After diagramming this sentence, the student would easily be able to see that Ann is the
subject of the sentence.

Once the sentence diagram has been completed, we also discover that the words In the
school talent show form an adverbial phrase that describes the verb sang. Because learning
parts of speech is such an abstract skill, most of our children would benefit from physically
manipulating the words to fit into a concrete, sequential diagram.


Example 2: After the curtain went down, the audience, along with the director, demanded
an encore of Sue and (me/I).

Sentences can be quite complex and filled with multiple phrases, which could make
selection of the correct pronoun complicated. However, once the sentence has been
diagrammed, the basic framework of the sentence is revealed: audience demanded me.
Sentence diagramming is a strategy writers can use to solve grammatical errors such as the
potential error in Example 2.
1



Example 3: Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
2

Have you ever come across challenging vocabulary? To discern the meanings of those
words, did you use strategies such as looking at the endings of the confusing words or the
context in which the puzzling words were located? Other than brillig, which means the four
oclock time to prepare for dinner, what are the other two nouns in this example? Toves
and wabe are the other nouns. Slithy is the adjective describing toves, and wabe is the
object of the preposition in.

Clearly, there is a set pattern to these nonsensical words: the suffixes and the positions of
the words definitely aid us in determining the part of speech of each imaginary word. As a
result of diagramming these two lines from Carrolls famous poem, I was able to see how
the individual words worked together linguistically, and they created an entertaining
meaning: It was four oclock in the afternoon (Twas brillig) when the slimy badger-like
lizards (slithy toves) were going around in circles (gyre) and making holes (gimble) inside
the grassy plot that surrounds a sun dial (wabe).
3



Example 4: Je parle lentement parce que les nouveaux tudiants sont la table.

Lets pretend for a moment that you are taking a college-level course in the study of the
French language, and the professor has just asked the class to identify the main adjective in
the above sentence. Well, the English translation would be written like this: I am speaking
slowly because the new students are at the table. Still, unsure whether the word slowly or
new is the adjective, you decide to diagram the sentence. Proudly, you discover that new
(nouveaux) is the adjective describing the noun students (tudiants).
4


Now, granted, the above examples are certainly sophisticated in nature, and some of you
may be wondering how to add sentence diagramming to your language arts curriculum.
First of all, diagramming should never be taught as an isolated skill but rather as one
learned in conjunction with other grammatical concepts.

Children are capable of learning how to diagram sentences during the elementary school
years. Below is an example of a typical diagram completed by a second-grader.


Example 5: The brown dog whined.

Sentence diagramming provides hands-on experiences for children, and the ability to form
visual pictures of both grammar and sentence patterns becomes more innate with practice.
Use of a curriculum that incorporates diagramming gradually and integrates this skill into
the other basics of English grammar is the best choice, in my opinion. A Beka and Rod and
Staff are two publishers whose resources use this approach. Here are two free online sites
that offer instruction about sentence diagramming:
grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/diagrams2/diagrams_frames.htm and wisc-
online.com/Objects/ViewObject.aspx?ID=WCN8207. (Accessed August 2012)

Students who have developed problem-solving strategies to uncover puzzling sentence
diagrams can also use these analytical skills in their personal writing projects. If they have
diagrammed consistently, using an array of different sentence patterns including simple to
complex in structure, eventually students will internalize these various sentence patterns.
These word arrangements become permanently etched into their writing schema, equipping
them to devise a unique style of writing. For example, writers who have been sentence
diagrammers will be equipped to examine their sentence patterns to determine if there is
redundancy in structure. Well-versed sentence diagrammers have an uncanny ability to
quickly identify the sentence parts (syntax), break down challenging or awkward sentences,
and effectively move either an individual part of speech or a phrase/clause around to create
new sentence structures.

Students who learn how to diagram sentences will also develop a good sense of how to
write descriptively simply because they were proficient in learning the parts of speech and
learned, via diagramming sentences, how adjectives and adverbs can be used to the
greatest advantage. Students can mentally picture the diagrammed sentences and then
create and arrange beautiful, sensory groups of words.

In conclusion, sentence diagramming provides our children with another strategy to analyze
grammatical errors in writing; interpret parts of speech patterns, including foreign
languages; and synthesize contextual meanings of vocabulary. Diagramming sentences, a
visual technique, provides children with an alternative means of understanding the English
language. And who doesnt like the challenge of a good puzzle to exercise the brain from
time to time?

Endnotes:
1. http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/index.htm, accessed April 18, 2012.
2. Excerpt from Lewis Carrolls Jabberwocky.
3. http://www.ehow.com/how_2279445_teach-parts-speech-using-
jabberwocky.html, accessed April 18, 2012.
4. french.about.com/od/grammar/a/partsofspeech.htm, accessed April 19, 2012.


Jennifer L. Padgett, M.Ed. has been a secondary educator in the fields of writing and literacy
for eighteen years. When not homeschooling or teaching a night class, Jennifer is pursuing
her passions of adoption advocacy and freelance writing. One may read more about her
familys latest adoption journey at padgettadoption.com (Accessed August 2012) or on
her new website: thewriteheart.com.

Copyright 2012, used with permission. All rights reserved by author. Originally appeared in
the August 2012 issue of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, the family education magazine.
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