Christensen, Francis, and Bonniejean Christensen. A New Rhetoric: NY: Harper & Row, 1976.
 
     This is the book used by the experimental group in Lester Faigley's 1978 study, a study which, according to Hillocks, shows that teaching grammar is ineffective. Note what the text says about grammar. Faigley's experimental group demonstrated overall better writing, but, in addition to their study of grammar, we need to look at the overall differences between the Christensens' book and McCrimmon's, which was used by the control group. (Click here to see the Table of Contents of McCrimmon's book.)  In addition to the way in which the Christensens taught grammar, they also focussed on many fewer concepts -- and taught each thoroughly. McCrimmon's text, like most textbooks, "covers" the material, but does not give students the opportunity to assimilate it. 
-EV
Preface    xiii
PART I THE PROCESS OF WRITING      1
1. Introduction   3

2. Basic Principles      6
    Addition      6
    Direction of Movement    7
    Levels of Generality      8
    Texture      9
    EXERCISE      15

3. Two-Level Narrative Sentences      19
    Representational Writing     20
    Grammatical Elements      22

"It is hardly necessary to insist again that the meaning, or perhaps here the interest, is in the modifiers. We need now a language for discussing them. The next few paragraphs are the foundation of our treatment of the sentence. You should master them so well that you can apply the principles creatively, in writing, and analytically, in the discussion of writing. The language we need is of two sorts--grammatical and what we will call rhetorical." (22) [The following paragraphs assume knowledge of "subject,"  "verb," and "subordinate" and "main" clauses. They explain, among others, adverbs, prepositional phrases, verbals, verb phrases, absolutes, relative clauses, adverbial phrases, adjectival phrases, "free noun phrases" (which turn out, later, to be appositives, and "the noun with an adverbial function...."]
    Rhetorical Elements      24
    Bringing the Grammatical and Rhetorical Together      25
    Advice for Writing      28
     "Do not write "As Vickers hunched forward, he smelled. . . ." Such sentences do occur and they may be logical, but they violate the whole-part relationship that is so characteristic of modern writing." (28) [This is an example of where I profoundly disagree with Christensen. Throughout his work, he "argues" for right-branching modification. Students (and some teachers) may accept his "whole-part" argument here, but how does an adverbial clause reflect a whole/part relationship? Even if Christensen is right in his conclusion, he is wrong in his method. Once students are taught to identify modifiers (and given lots of practice in it), they can examine texts and decide for themselves if  constructions such as "As Vickers hunched forward, he smelled. . . ."  should be avoided.]
    EXERCISES      29

4. Multilevel Narrative Sentences     32
    Relationship of the Additions     33
    Graphic Representation     36
    Discrimination of Levels     38

     "Analyzing and writing multilevel sentences is a good way to develop the syntactical dexterity that is as valuable to the writer as digital dexterity is to the dentist. But since you can't add levels unless you have materials to fashion them from, each added level forces a closer interrogation of the action. Each added one is a step away from the habitual, the already generalized and categorized, toward what is individual or unique in the occasion. If depth of exploration, if concreteness, is of value, then work with multilevel sentences is a way to have it forced upon you." (39) [As Faigley notes in one of his articles, it may be this combination of learning how to analyze sentences, and learning to generate content for them, that created the improvement in writing quality that he reported in his study.]
    EXERCISES     39

5. Description -- The Appositive Noun Phrase      42
    Base Clauses      42
    Free Modifiers      43
    The Noun Phrase      45
    EXERCISES     51

6. The Language of the Senses      55
    Visual and Nonvisual      56
    Sound      58
    EXERCISES      64
    Smell     66

"the vocabulary of a people (as of a person) is a pretty good index of what it preoccupies itself with." (66) [An interesting statement in general, but also interesting in relation to our concept(s) of cause/effect -- we have no generally used words to distinguish the various types of causes.]
    EXERCISES      70
    Touch      71
    EXERCISES      75
    Taste      77
PART II THE LARGER UNITS OF COMPOSITION      83
7. A Short Narrative      85
    The Assignment: A Paragraph      85
    Student Examples     88
    EXERCISES      93

8. Dominant Tone      97
    Techniques      98
    Subjects      100
    EXERCISES      103

9. The Longer Narrative      110
    Techniques      110
    EXERCISES      114

10. Paragraphing -- An Introduction to Discursive Writing      126
    Structural and Supporting Sentences     126
    The Cumulative Nature of Extended Sequences      126
    The Problem of Paragraphing      127
    Graphic Devices      128
    Organization      128
    Punctuation by Paragraph      132
    Ordering a Series      133
    Like Things in Like Ways       133
    EXERCISES      134

11. The Structure of Paragraphs      142
    Simple Coordinate Sequences      143
    Simple Subordinate Sequences      147
    Mixed Sequences      149
    Mixed Coordinate Sequences      150
    Mixed Subordinate Sequences      153
    The Topic Sentence      154
    Paragraphs with Extrasequential Sentences     159
    EXERCISES      164

12. Methods of Support      166
    Identification      170
    Details, Particulars      172
    Examples, Instances, Illustrations     173
    Definition      175
    Elimination, Negation      176
    Restatement, Repetition     178
    Comparison-Contrast, Analogy     179
    Explication       181
    Causes or Reasons; Effects or Consequences      183
    Evidence and Authority      185
    Other Methods      187
    The Writer's Obligation      187
    EXERCISES      188

Index      195