Sentence diagramming is the long division of English. It involves a bewildering array of lines and diagonal branches. It is loathed as an elementary school chore. And it is presumed to be obsolete.

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. All right, class. Settle down now. Stop fidgeting. Sit up straight, eyes forward, all eyes on the blackboard. Today we're going to diagram ...

There are plenty of people out there—not only English teachers but also amateur language buffs like me—who believe that diagramming a sentence provides insight into the mind of its perpetrator. The ...

Do you remember diagramming sentences in elementary school? Your teacher would have you chart out where the subject, object, and modifiers went. Well, like so many things in school these days, ...

When you think about a sentence, you usually think about words — not lines. But sentence diagramming brings geometry into grammar. If you weren't taught to diagram a sentence, this might sound a ...

The following are sixth grade-level sentences waiting to be dissected and diagrammed. “Both Tayler and Megan visited their friend in Dallas, Texas, during the summer.” “Wow, that is a really big ...

Kitty Burns Florey explores a lost art in Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog, subtitled "The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences." Once used to teach grammar, the practice has fallen out ...