How does Quill decide which grammar rules to teach?

Quill follows the guidelines for grammar and style published in the Chicago Manual of Style. While other style guides are geared towards specific audiences and genres of writing, the Chicago Manual of Style is designed to support writers of all types, making it the best-suited and most mission-aligned guide for Quill. Quill enforces rules not otherwise enforced by other style guides such as the oxford comma, using the word, since, as both a conjunction of time and a conjunction of cause and effect, and no dangling participles. If questions arise about a concept or a rule and Quill's content creators cannot find answers in the Chicago Manual of Style, then we do in-depth research of credible sources on the concept - exploring grammarians’ explanations and perspectives, referencing published works on grammar, and more - and draw conclusions from these sources. We never use public forums or uncredited sites to inform our decisions; all of the sources that we use are research-backed.

When Quill first began building its library, we focused on building a foundational cohort of activities aligned to Common Core Writing Standards. Now, we are constantly adding new content to accommodate shifting standards and uncovered content areas:

1. What are the most common issues in student writing? What are the areas that students consistently struggle in, even after direct instruction? What are the basics that high school students, for example, still haven’t quite mastered?

2. What are teachers asking for? What is challenging for them to teach? What topics do teachers spend the most time on in the classroom because they are a priority?

3. What skills do students need to have in order to eventually write at a level that helps them succeed in college and, more importantly, that are essential for engaging with the world and current political, social, and economic conversations?

4. What are the gaps in our current offering (with the goal to offer a complete writing/grammar curriculum)? Which areas that are important to students and teachers are not covered by other tools?

Currently, Quill looks to address the aforementioned questions when adding new content. These questions are informed by the needs and feedback of Quill teachers, as well as the methodologies of expert grammarians.

In addition to these practices, Quill takes very seriously when teachers reach out to us asking for new rules or suggesting that we may have gotten a rule wrong. We are committed to always delving into the content in question. While maintaining the integrity of technical grammar, Quill is very open to changing our guidelines as rules change, ideas change, and the English language changes.

Have more questions?

Please feel free to send a message to the Quill team using the green message bubble on the bottom right corner of the screen or email us at support@quill.org.