A Dialogue with Roger B Rueda, the author of APPLE Grammar

By Jeanne Mae Losala


APPLE Grammar, all the grammar you need to do well in life, is a sensible reference and instructional guide to the structure of the English language, intended to unswervingly help people of all ages and educational levels read, speak, and write better. Parts of speech and the most common grammatical mistakes are pointed up in this easy-to-understand, unyielding guide. A fabulous book for anyone trying to improve their formal business English in order to better achieve something at an organisation career, or simply perk up one's aptitude to be understood, APPLE Grammar is strongly recommended for individual, school, and neighbourhood library reference collections.

This week I have Roger B Rueda, the author of APPLE Grammar which has been published by CentralBooks in Quezon City. Roger B Rueda is an engaging teacher, lecturer, poet, fictionist, and author who loves a good laugh but also dedicates himself to teaching people the correct usage of English. His book, APPLE Grammar, is an easy-to-use reference guide. He has a degree in mass communications. He is a UP Fellow for Poetry and an MSU-IIT Fellow for Fiction. His essays, poems, and short stories have been published in Philippine Panorama, Home Life, The Sunday Times, NCCA Mantala, Panay News's Files, and Hiligaynon. He works as ESL/writing teacher at a language institute and as reviewer/lecturer at a review centre. He is all of thirty and writes in English, Hiligaynon, and Filipino. Currently, he is writing a Hiligaynon grammar book and compiling Hiligaynon words for his Hiligaynon-English, English Hiligaynon dictionary. He is the managing and articles editor of itravel Philippines magazine based in Cebu City.

To start with let me say that I feel this is the most noteworthy book published in the field of grammar for a very long time in the Philippines. Nothing compares with it; it is leading edge and in a word extraordinary.

I was auspicious enough to be able to interview the author and include here, in full, his answers to my questions, as I believe his immediate version of the milieu, underlying principle, and approach to the book is better than any second hand version that I could endow with.

Q: What was the driving force to put pen to paper for the book?

I have spent many years of my professional life looking at what grammar is and how it is important in using the English language and trying to find ways of describing it effectively, principally with teachers and students of English in mind. I have always felt that it has never been accorded due consequence in the study of grammar.

Question: The book is all-round views of grammar – was this with a view to combine much of what has been written as you think fit on these various aspects into a whole?

Yes, I was cognisant that a lot of grammars are structured on the basis of words and sentences only, with the sentence often the higher limit for explanation. There is thus a danger that you only look at language bottom-up, starting with the smallest units but never reaching through into discourse or context in any consequential way. I have tried to write APPLE Grammar so that top-down and bottom-up descriptions sit at the side of each other. I feel this gives a richer picture of the language.

Question: What sources did you use in your collection of language examples and data?

I drew on my own collection of examples from my own teaching over the years: examples of ads, literary examples, favourite newspaper stories, bits of data gathered here and there in the kind of way that all English teachers amass over the years.

Question: If you had to start off writing the book again would you do anything another way?

I would in all probability pay even more attention to the magnitude of theories, but this requires a lot of researches to typify key characteristics so that the understanding of grammar and its components is facilitated well. I am still, conversely, not utterly clear about the theory of what I am planning to do nor about how it functions, how I most effectively express it and how I use a source to attest it. But I feel this is a very big topic and would hope to make it more fundamental to my next book.

Question: Where can we buy a copy of your book?

Interested parties can hit local bookstores for a copy. A copy can be had at Eddie Mar in SM City and Robinsons. I give discount for bulk orders, so teachers who are interested in using my book in June for their students may contact me on 09068541933.

As a closing word let me say that this must be the first time that I have read a grammar book cover to cover (and this one is 324 pages long) and I found myself fascinated right through.

I would like to be grateful to the author for his chock-a-block and edifying answers to my questions.