How do you cultivate credibility as a grammarian?

Be a good listener.

Monitor and record usage of the English language during the meeting:

• Grammatical errors AND
• Creative and compelling examples of language usage, specific words, and examples that impressed you

Emphasize the positives as much as the negatives, if not more.

Give a detailed report at the end – directly address comments for each person. For example, “Today I noticed several good examples of creative language” doesn’t give much to anyone. If the grammarian mentions in their report, “Riya, I liked the way you used the metaphor of clouds for your concern with … it worked well for me, ” it is specific in detail and clarity to address Riya directly.

The role of a grammarian involves listening comprehension, attention to detail, critical thinking, and then delivering a meaningful report in 1-2 minutes.

Word of the Day

The grammarian selects the word of the day for the meeting. They track who used word of the day during table topics and report on it before voting for the best table topics speaker.

We encourage to select a verb for word of the day – it makes easier for toasties to use it. Okay for them to use a noun or an adjective based on it. Provide meaning and example sentence to use the word – send email to coaches in your class. See examples below for what to include in your email.

Example One