Versatile free application to teach and learn Kellogg-Reed sentence diagrams.
Diagramming Sentences makes learning the structure of simple and complex sentences easy. It follows the Kellogg-Reed method of diagramming (or Reed-Kellogg, as it is more commonly known), which – despite of being nearly 135 years old – is still as good as any other method to teach and learn the different functions of the various elements in a sentence and how they interact.
Developed by Professor Dalglish, from the City University of New York, Diagramming Sentences has been devised with both teachers and students in mind. Teachers can use it to provide examples of simple, compound, and complex sentences to their students, while these can use it at home to review known examples and to create their own diagrams. Besides, the program’s editing functionalities gives teachers the possibility of creating tests and exams that students can fill in remotely, save as a TDF file, and send it to their teacher for checking.
Diagramming Sentences comes with a long list of examples, which cover simple, complex, compound, infinitive, gerund, and miscellaneous sentences. When you select one of these examples you will be given an empty Reed-Kellogg diagram representing the true structure of the sentence selected. In the diagram you will see various marks (asterisks) showing you the position of the words within the diagram. Your task is to drag each word to its right location in the diagram. The words in the sentence are colored differently according to the part of the sentence they belong. If you happen to drag the same word repeatedly to a wrong location, the program will help you out by drawing a blinking rectangle right in the area where the word should be placed.
The diagram editor takes a bit longer to master, but not much longer. Once you have typed your new sentence, you will be offered a big canvas to create the corresponding diagram. Lines can be drawn freehand using your mouse, or they can be selected from the bar at the top of the screen. Here you will find various types of straight lines (horizontal, vertical, oblique, etc.) as well as a number of intersecting lines and connections, which will help you to produce high-quality diagrams.
Pros
- Excellent database with all types of sentences
- Easy-to-follow, intuitive interface
- Offers you helpful hints after a number of mistakes
Cons
- Graphic representations get easily distorted when changing the size of the window
I believe that this app provides students with a cost-effective way to learn sentence diagramming. From personal experience, I know that the best way to become skilled at diagramming sentences is by practicing. By providing numerous example sentences, at various levels of difficulty, this app provides students with a tool that allows them to be responsible for their own learning and work on areas of sentence diagramming that are more challenging for them. This app also allows professors to make the instruction of sentence diagramming more hands on. Because teachers can create their own examples and share them with the students, class time can be spent with the students actively working on sentence diagramming rather than just listening and watching the professor explain it.
Not working on windows 8.1?