A method and apparatus for analyzing and debugging natural language parses is provided. An input sentence is received and parsed by a parsing engine. A table of constituents is retrieved from the parsing engine and a grid tree is drawn representing the input sentence. Nodes of the tree, or connecting points, appear at intersections of the tree "branches." Once the grid has been drawn, the first syntactically correct parse of the sentence is mapped to the grid in a tree-like manner (the "parse tree"). Input is then received for selecting one of several graphical buttons, for selecting a node that is in the parse tree, for selecting a node that is not in the parse tree, or for selecting options from one of several "pull-down" menus. If a connecting point that is not contained in the parse tree is selected, a group of menu options may be displayed adjacent to the selected connecting point. The user may select menu options for displaying successful rules applied at the connecting point, or for displaying unattempted and failed rules for the connecting point. If a connecting point that is contained in the parse tree (i.e. a constituent was formed at the connecting point) is selected, a second group of menu options may be displayed adjacent to the selected connecting point. The menu options may include displaying the name of the connecting point and the name of the rule that was applied at the connecting point to form the constituent.