Passive is usually used when what is done is more important than who did it. It focuses on the action itself, not the doer.

’Be able to’ is used after modals (She should be able to finish the task.), when we talk about past achievements, meaning that they are facts, not possibilities (He was able to come on time.) and informal contexts.

Teaching grammar will not make writing errors go away. Students make errors in the process of learning, and as they learn about writing, they often make new errors, not necessarily fewer ones. But knowing basic grammatical terminology does provide students with a tool for thinking about and discussing sentences. And lots of discussion of language,…

Four of the twelve standards call on the students’ understanding of language and sentence structure:

Grammar is important because it is the language that makes it possible for us to talk about language. Grammar names the types of words and word groups that make up sentences not only in English but in any language. As human beings, we can put sentences together even as children — we can all do grammar. But…