Before Grammar Books were published many people looked at religious documents such as 'The Bible' and the 'Book for Common Prayer' to know how to write and spell. These documents had important structures which everyone could understand as they were detailed in books that everyone had access to and could make sense of.
The first known Grammar Book was published in 1586 by William Bullokar called 'Pamphlet for Grammar' and detailed many of the techniques the writer felt were used. It was written in Latin as it was the language of the time and was not easily accessible for all people. It was only really seen as suitable for educated people. The book did not have much impact as people still used many different structures and techniques for hundreds of years after.
Between 1750 and 1800, 200 new Grammar Books were publicised which works out approximately 4 a year. These used many prescriptive ideas that showed grammar as right or wrong and nothing in between. The academics who wrote these books thought that they knew about grammar and fought against each others ideas.
A significant book published was 'A Short Introduction to English Grammar' by Bishop Robert Lowth, which was written in 1762. Many writers influenced him such as Shakespeare, Milton and Pope. One of his rules was "two negatives in English destroy each other," which is still valid in English today as two negatives equal a positive as they cancel out. He significantly shaped the language we have today even though he would have been more used to the language of Latin.
Sir Ernest Gowers published his book, 'The Complete Plain Words' in 1954 after he believed that English should be simplified and used in order for everyone to understand. He wanted a language which everyone could understand in public documents not just the highly educated. However, he felt in legal documents such as in court, Plain language should NOT be used but this has not be abided by and these legal documents are now using Plain English.
Grammar is focused in GCSE with 5% of marks being used for SPaG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar). Through these marks, it allows a student to realise how they effectively use grammar with its importance in society. University of Bristol have come with exercises in order for people to improve their grammar in a society that is constantly deteriorating in grammar due to our social media and technology advances.
Bibliography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_Of_English_grammars
http://www.revisionworld.com/a2-level-level-revision/english-language/language-change-0/modern-english-c-1700-present#TTmShEclF7192cbk.99
http://thehistoryofenglish.com/history_late_modern.html
http://ielanguages.com/enghist.html
http://englishplus.com/news/news0300.htm
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/exercises/grammar/grammar_tutorial/page_41.htm
http://www.aqa.org.uk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Complete_Plain_Words
