By Susanne Treiber, Madison Area Technical College
Yet again a student arrives in the Writing Center determined to be successful in their intensive writing course, ready to learn how to improve their writing, and let’s face it, improve their paper. They admit, “I’m not a very good writer. I’ve never been able to follow all of the rules, so my grammar stinks.” As a tutor, you are quite used to writers equating their writing ability with how well they can adhere to the rules of language, and it stings, rubs, or even annoys you a bit that grammar rules have so much power over writers’ confidence.
You have a range of thoughts that arise, like Grammar isn’t as important as content and I’m not very good at grammar either and fixing grammar isn’t why I became a tutor. You weigh those thought bubbles and decide to go with a response aligned with writing center pedagogy, like “Let’s dig into what you’ve got, focusing on what’s working from a big picture perspective.” Let’s be honest—most of us have had thoughts like the one above. Whether they’ve crept in because of our own resistance to conforming or because we want writers to think “bigger,” the fact is that neither are helpful to writers trying to navigate language use norms and standards, while also discovering their own voices.
For many tutors, working at the sentence level is not likely a fave situation, but I’m going to make a confession here: it’s becoming mine. And here’s why.
Critical Language Awareness as an Approach to Shift Usage and Grammar Beliefs
For the past several years, I’ve been exploring how critical language awareness (CLA) can be applied in a writing center context. I first learned about CLA from Shawna Shapiro (2022), a linguistics scholar and leading advocate for CLA as a pedagogy and practice in the teaching of writing. Shapiro explains that CLA-informed practices provide writers with opportunities to become aware of the interconnectedness of power, privilege, identity and language. When a writer is aware of the rules of the game and also aware of their power as a writer, they have more rhetorical agency over whether they want to conform to or resist those rules. Talking with a tutor rhetorically prepared to discuss how a writer can navigate between systemic norms and standards and their writerly identity can make all the difference!
We know words are powerful. So much so, we use quotes to inspire and motivate, such as in signature lines, on walls in our homes and offices, and even when encouraging a student to take the next step in their life journey. So, if we know writers use sentences to connect with an audience and we know sentences can have a powerful effect, then why are we (aka writing center practitioners) not talking about them more? And why are we often bothered by our writers’ interests to do so? Why do we not give grammar and language usage their due, instead of continually minimizing their importance? One reason may be that in writing center contexts, we just don’t have a lot of experience or training rhetorically discussing language use.
Laura Aull (2025), a linguist at the University of Michigan who studies language and power, explains that when it comes to language and language use, we’ve been taught across K-16 to regulate language and view grammar and other sentence-level writing aspects as rules we have to abide by. Because of this systemic approach, writing center lore has often viewed talking about grammar as oppressive and something we have to just put up with, like smelly shoes. When we don’t recognize the power of language or put ourselves in spaces with writers to question grammar with a rhetorical lens, we find ourselves carrying our biases and missing opportunities to interrogate, investigate, or inquire about sentence-level choices.
Aull (2023) offers a progressive alternative to language regulation: language exploration. I mean, doesn’t that phrase sound like what writing center practitioners do already? Exploration is at the heart of our work! I just don’t think we’ve had enough avenues to learn how to explore language and language use. Until now. We have linguists like Aull, Curzan, and Shapiro, to name a few, sharing their expertise in how teachers (and IMHO tutors) of writing can explore sentence-level writing aspects that build writer awareness of and agency over their writing. I argue not only that we writing center folks can follow linguists’ lead in developing our critical language awareness to create spaces for writers to do so, but we must do so if we are to bring linguistic justice practices into our writing center spaces.
Think of Grammar as Powerful Tools
So what might it look like to foreground linguistic justice when discussing grammar in a tutoring session? Enter the concept of rhetorical grammar, which Kolln (2013) explains is about understanding and making grammatical choices while also being aware of the rhetorical effects those choices have on the audience.
At Madison College, a two-year open access institution based in southeastern Wisconsin, we have been particularly inspired by how rhetorical grammar has been applied in the work of Amos, Foerstner, and Skulstad at Queens University. We’ve adapted the framework of their writer workshops called Write It (See CLA Salon January, 29, 2024) to a professional development workshop for our tutors called Grammar in Play. The purpose of the PD is to provide tutors with a piece of writing where they collectively explore single sentences within the piece using a rhetorical lens. They each come up with a sentence variation and talk through why they made the choice they did. They explain what the choice does for the writer, the audience, and/or the situation that makes it an effective choice for them. In essence, we play with language and language use and grapple with the question: What is rhetorically effective? As tutors become more attuned to playing with language use, the more they see the fun in talking with writers in a similar way. So, when a writer says they want to work on grammar, we aim to reframe our stinging, rubbing, or annoying thought bubbles as: Stay curious. Be open to the possibilities of grammar as tools. And that leads to an authentic, writing center pedagogy aligned comment to the writer like: “There is so much power to language use, isn’t there? Talking about grammar choices helps you decide how to connect with your audience, and it builds your writer identity and agency. We’re going to have some fun in this session.”
How to Apply Rhetorical Grammar to a Session
To give more insight into how we adapted the Queens University Write It student-focused workshop to a Grammar in Play tutor-focused PD session, we use a four-step process for exploration: in the first two steps we explore internally, asking the tutor to be aware, unpack, and reframe their own thinking and then move to explore externally with the writer in the next steps to critically and rhetorically explore their choices.
Here’s a brief overview of the process starting with a scenario where using the grammar in play technique could be a go-to strategy for a tutor:
During the stage of establishing the writer’s goals for the session, they express concerns about how they’ve crafted their sentences. They’ve identified reviewing grammar as an area of focus. Knowing that the word ‘grammar’ means many things to writers (e.g. mechanics/punctuation, sentence structure, vocabulary, usage), you seek clarity asking them to be more specific. Once the writer has clarified, and you have identified their specific concerns, you ask them to begin reading their piece. While reading, the writer stumbles over a sentence which you see has some structural elements to attend to. You decide this could be an opportunity to explore language and language use—an ideal opportunity to “try on” the Grammar in Play approach to rhetorically discussing grammar. The four steps of this approach are: notice, critically self-inquire, make a move, and dynamically dialogue. Let’s dig in to learn a bit more about each step.
- Notice and explore your mindset. In this moment (30 seconds or less), questions to ask yourself that build metacognitive awareness and, while only briefly, allows you to engage in critical reflection:
- What reactions am I having? Does the language use push up against what norms and standards I have been taught for the rhetorical situation?
- What am I telling myself about the sentence and the writer?
- What thought bubbles are coming up for me from a “regulation of language” perspective?
- Critically self-inquire by recognizing the “regulation of language” approach and intentionally reframe to an “exploration of language” approach.
- Consider what you know about the value of rhetoric – the relationship of the writer, the audience and the situation and/or writing genre.
- Be curious about how the sentence impacts the rhetorical situation.
- Be open to learning about the writer’s language assets, interests in how they want to impact the audience, genre or situation
- Make a move to build the writer’s awareness of their moves at the sentence level, identify the writer’s maneuver. This is where you first bring exploration into the session and begin to have some fun together. Take time to play with the sentence.
- Ask them: “What are you trying to do by (insert identified grammatical maneuver here)?
- Discuss the norms and standards that have been established within the genre of writing and the expectations of the instructor.
- Questions to consider:
- What do you know about research writing (or insert another writing genre here)?
- When reading journal articles, what do you notice about the sentence structures?
- Have you ever read an article that doesn’t follow those norms and standards?
- What do you think the author was trying to do?
- Then make a move again to co-create varying options that align with what they want to do within the rhetorical boundaries you two have identified.
- Dynamically dialogue to encourage a rhetorical exchange of ideas about the varying options developed.
- Questions to consider:
- What does X variation convey to the audience? How does it differ from this Y variation?
- What impact do you want to have on the audience?
- How does your decision reflect an aspect of your linguistic identity that you want the audience to know about?
- How does each variation comply with or push up against the identified norms and standards of the situation, the genre, or the instructor’s expectations?
As a tutor, you likely know that a rhetorical relationship includes the writer, the audience, and the situation. So, think about your dynamic dialogues as having three points of entry to apply this four-step approach. You can choose to explore the writer’s language systems and intentions, you can critically consider audience(s) and the effect the writer wants to have on them, or you can grapple with the writer about the socially constructed language norms and standards of the situation and/or genre they are working in. Each one of these three points of entry provides a tutor with myriad questions that can build writer awareness about how to navigate their language use decisions. These access points also allow a tutor to have conversations that both attend to rhetoric and to the writer’s initial interest in talking about grammar, while keeping the writer in an agency-focused, decision-making position.
One Caveat to Consider When Trying on the Grammar in Play Strategy
Grammar in play cannot be used for every sentence-level issue—be thoughtful about when to use it. As in any writing center session, pull from your repertoire of tutoring techniques and strategies based on what you believe will best draw out a writer’s assets and will build writerly confidence and competence. Even though writing center practitioners oppose the identity of an editing service, editing is part of the writing process. So, the tutor needs to be both mindful of where the writer is in the writing process and the writer’s interest in wanting to talk about local writing aspects. This ensures that you are keeping the writer at the center during the session.
Impact of Applying Rhetorical Grammar Skills to a Session
After using the grammar in play technique in a writing center session, students have said things like, “I can’t believe it. I love this. I never realized how many options I have when putting my sentences together.” Or, “Talking about grammar like this makes me feel like a stronger writer.”
I have also asked for feedback from peer tutors about how they have used the technique in their sessions. Peer tutors who have been using this technique for a couple of semesters or more felt that the exploration of language approach was a liberating experience for them and the writers they work with. They appreciated having a specific strategy to help them move away from focusing on the regulation and rules of language, sharing how much their “mind was opened” (two tutors used that exact phrase!) after being introduced to grammar in play.
Grammar in play provides a gateway to talking with writers about the composition of their local writing choices, and it can move us toward being more linguistically just writing center practitioners. So the next time a writer mentions wanting to work on the G-word and downgrades their writing ability within the same breath, get excited and get energized, knowing that you have access to a tutoring strategy that allows you to grow as a tutor while allowing the writer to build critical language awareness and agency over their writing. Best of all? You can have a heck of a lot of fun talking about writing together.
References
Amos, J. & Skulstad, L. (2024, January 29). “CLA and rhetorical grammar.” The CLA salon: An online series hosted by Shawna Shapiro. [link]
Aull, L. (2023). You can’t write that: 8 myths about correct English. Cambridge University Press & Assessment.
Aull, L. (2025). Language knowledge and linguistic justice. In Beitler, J.E., Ruffing Robbins, S. (Eds.). Sites of writing: Essays in honor of Anne Ruggles Gere. (pp. 81–95). WAC Clearinghouse. [link]
Kolln, M. & Gray, L. (2013). Rhetorical grammar: Grammatical choices, rhetorical effects (7th ed.). Pearson.
Shapiro, S. (2022). Cultivating critical language awareness in the writing classroom. Routledge.
Susanne has been with the Madison College Writing Center since 2011 and is currently the Manager of the Writing Center. As a doctoral student at ASU’s Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation, her action research is focused on studying tutors’ beliefs about grammar and language use and how to enact linguistic justice practices in a writing center context. Other interests include running on roads, paths or trails, traveling to new places, spending time with her spouse and three adult children. Doing all those at the same? The absolute best!