This article shows how brief psycholinguistic reading experiments can illustrate the effects of various grammatical features, pique students’ interest, and position them to construct their own understanding of English grammar, separate from the teacher’s dictates.

In this study, I use think-aloud protocol methods to determine how students respond to their teacher’s conversational and nonconversational written feedback on their writing.

The application of Edward P. J. Corbett’s prose style chart to three exemplary first–year essays reveals that there is an identifiable, hence teachable, exemplary first-year writing style.