Classes: ACT & SAT

Grammar is a tricky business, and most of us shy away from the stress of subject-verb agreement and the tedious rules of punctuation. Who needs apostrophes anyway? But grammar isn’t just decorative; it’s technical. Form is inseparable from function, and a mastery of grammar allows us to communicate our ideas clearly, efficiently, and unambiguously. A shaky grasp of mechanics can lead to confusion (an entire lawsuit once hinged on the placement of a single comma!) and undermines a writer’s confidence, meaning we never quite figure out the difference between bad and badly, fewer and less, or where those pesky quotation marks really go.

Students will learn how to spot and fix grammatical errors while proofreading their own work, develop methods to improve syntax, investigate informal discourse and trending language, and identify ways to strengthen prose without damaging an author’s voice.

Open to: Rising 9th – 12th graders
Total hours: 8
Total classes: 8
Fee: $600
This class is capped at 8.

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Instructor: Adrienne Bernhard

Adrienne graduated with departmental honors from Northwestern University, and went on to pursue a Masters degree in American literature at Yale University. Adrienne completed a one-year fellowship at Oxford, and also holds a second Masters degree in Education from Columbia University Teachers College. She has published commentary on corporate social responsibility and articles in numerous literary journals and magazines, including the Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, Smithsonian, the BBC, and other media outlets. Adrienne is also a freelance editor, web content producer, and, most recently, assistant to the Deputy Editor at The New Yorker. She specializes in essay writing, study skills and organizational support, practical rhetoric and French, as well as test prep for the ISEE, SSAT, SHSAT, SAT, ACT, and GRE exams.