Week 1 (English Grammar: The Missing Course)

Week 2 (English Grammar: The Missing Course)

Week 3 (English Grammar: The Missing Course)

Week 4 (English Grammar: The Missing Course)

Learn all the grammar they should have taught you in school – this time without the stress or judgement. We'll explore the nuts and bolts of how the English language works and what makes it unique.

English Grammar: The Missing Course

Learn all the grammar they should have taught you in school without the stress or judgement. We'll explore the nuts and bolts of how the English language works and what makes it unique.

This is a template for collecting the artifact resulting from this cohort — a final, publicly viewable summary of what participants learned or created during the course.

❗️**Important:** The contents of this post will appear on the cohort page, visible to everyone. Don't post anything you don't want to be publicly shared.

Please edit this topic with an artifact that makes sense for your course.

## [Artifact Title]

Replace with: summary description of what the cohort created or learned together.

This may be a final writeup, a summary of each participant's project, a link roundup to externally hosted  assignments — whatever makes sense for your course.

Note that participants can reply to this post, but only this initial post of the topic will be published to the cohort page as its public artifact.

Artifact

This is a template for an assignment you want to give participants in this cohort.

Please edit this topic with description, instructions, or anything else that makes sense for the assignment you'd like to share. The text below is just a starting point.

## [Assignment Title]

Replace with: summary description of the assignment. What are participants creating? What's the learning goal in the context of this course?

## Instructions

Replace with: details on the expected format or process for completing the assignment.

Example (for a final writeup):

- Please post a link to a Google Doc with 500 words on what you learned
- Make sure that sharing is turned on so others can comment

Example (for a photography workshop)

- Select your three favorite photos from the week's theme
- Upload them to a post here, each preceded with a one-paragraph description

Assignment

This is a template for details / discussion related to a specific event in your cohort.

Please edit this topic to include most or all of the elements listed below!

❗️**Important:** Please schedule each event from the main cohort page. This template is not the main way to create an event, but may be useful as a reminder, a way to share related details, or collaborate on event notes.

## [Event Title]

Replace with: short description of the event; any additional info beyond what you included in the event description on the cohort page.

## Details / Instructions

Replace with: further details about the event, if needed. How to join, anything participants need to do to prepare; etc.

Event

Welcome to a new cohort of **The Missing Grammar Course: Everything!**

## Live sessions

The Zoom links are to be found via the course page, but the easier way to find them is…

…to sync your [Hyperlink calendar](https://hyperlink.academy/calendar) to your calendar app. This way, you don’t miss any events due to time zone confusion.


Getting Started

This is a template for a prompt — a question or discussion topic you'd like participants to discuss or respond to.

Please edit this topic to include any details necessary to spark this discussion!

## [Prompt Title]

Replace with: the prompt itself, with as much detail as you need, and how you'd like participants to respond below.

Prompt

This is a template for your cohort to run a retrospective — collecting valuable feedback from participants that will help the course improve over time.

Please edit this topic to include most or all of the following elements — or anything else you like!

## Questions

Replace with: particular questions you'd like students to answer at the end of the cohort, aimed at helping your course improve.

The questions below are just examples. You'll get better feedback if you ask targeted questions about specific aspects of your course. Tweak these questions, or write your own!

- What did you expect to get out of this course? Were those expectations met? If not, how do you feel about the progress you made in this course (if any)?
- What specific things (moments, techniques, conversations) did you feel were most useful to learning in this course?
- What do you wish we'd spent more time on? Anything you felt we should add?
- What's one thing you'd suggest we change or remove?
- Please share anything else you'd like us to know!

Participants: you can quote some or all of these questions to structure your replies below.

## Sharing the Retro

Replace with: how the info from this retrospective will be used to improve the course. For example:

The maintainers of this course will review all feedback collected in this retrospective process. We'll think hard about how we can improve the course structure, specific processes, even particular assignments, questions, or readings.

We may follow up if we want to get more detail on anything mentioned below. 

Thanks so much for taking the time to help us improve this course — we really appreciate it!

Retrospective

- Do you have trouble learning other languages because their textbooks assume a background in English grammar you don't have?
- Do you freeze up at the mention of a relative clause?
- Do you wonder why people get upset at "split infinitives"?
- Do you get writing back covered in red marks on sentences that look perfectly fine to you?

Let's face it, were you born into one of those generations in English-speaking countries who were simply never taught grammar in school?

If so, this is the course for you. Over four weeks, we will give a thorough, linguistically sophisticated tour of English grammar in a fun and low-stress environment. You'll learn the nuts and bolts of how English works and what makes it unique. We'll dive into controversial aspects of English grammar (_less_ vs. _fewer_, the passive voice, singular _they_) and help you come to an informed opinion about them.

*In the event that the class does not have sufficient enrolment by the start date, it will be refunded in full.*

## Syllabus

## Week 1: Return to Conjunction Junction

This week you'll learn to untangle the knots that most of the discussions about grammar tie themselves into. You'll learn to distinguish grammaticality from formality, and look to at "Standard English" as simply one variety among many different Englishes, albeit one that society will reward you for using. We'll also outline the high-level structure of English grammar, and you'll learn about our old friends, the parts of speech.

## Week 2: Verbs and Other Four-Letter Words

This week we'll examine the mighty verb, the one part of speech that virtually no English clause can do without. You'll learn how to describe the changes in form verbs undergo to express various subtle changes in meaning. Among other things, you'll learn how the present tense doesn't always describe the present, the past tense doesn't always describe the past, and the future tense doesn't even exist.

## Week 3: The Power of Noun

This week we'll turn our attention to the noun and its friends (including articles, adjectives, and pronouns). You'll learn the different subtleties these words can express. For example, why does _He's the shit_ mean something different from _He's a shit_? How about _He's shit_? You'll also learn what is so magical about pronouns and you'll even hear the story of so-called singular _they_.

## Week 4: Rebel Without a Clause

This week we zoom out to the level of the clause and the sentence: you'll learn how clauses combine to create longer, more complicated sentences. You will learn the various strategies English uses to manage new information in a sentence, including every automated grammar checker's worst enemy: the passive voice. 
## Who Should Sign Up

- Native speakers of English who want to gain confidence talking, writing, and thinking about grammar, *or*
- Advanced non-native speakers of English who would like to understand some of the subtleties of English grammar

## Who wouldn't enjoy this course

- Linguists (you'll be bored)
- Beginner or intermediate-level speakers of English (we'll be going too fast)
- People who want to complain about other people's grammar (you'll be disappointed)

Cohort #1

English Grammar: The Missing Course

Week 1 (English Grammar: The Missing Course)

Week 2 (English Grammar: The Missing Course)

Week 3 (English Grammar: The Missing Course)

Week 4 (English Grammar: The Missing Course)

Information