Celebrating Good Grammar: It’s National Grammar Day!
Every year on March 4, we lovers of language celebrate good grammar, and with good reason.
Take a tour around the web, check out some grammatically flawed public signs, peek into a mass market paperback book. You’re sure to find a grammar mistake or two (or two hundred).
Throughout my adult life, I’ve made a conscious effort to expand my knowledge of grammar, and the more I learn, the more I realize that proper grammar is a rare thing indeed.
Now, I’m not a member of the grammar police squad. I’m all for breaking and bending the rules, especially when doing so makes your writing stronger or when it lends to the artistic integrity of a piece. But to break the rules effectively, you really have to know them first.
Today is national grammar day. I say that to honor this working holiday, we writers (bloggers — that means you too!) make a commitment to work a little harder at mastering grammar. You don’t have to sign up for a course or spend your days reading grammar handbooks. Just make a bit more effort to pay attention to language, words, and sentence structure. Train yourself to review your work with a sharper eye. Pay close attention to what you don’t know. Next time you’re uncertain about a grammar issue, look it up and do it right instead of rewording your sentence.
National Grammar Day
National Grammar Day is a day to “Speak well! Write well! And on March 4, march forth and spread the word.” This year’s event is hosted by the one and only Grammar Girl, Mignon Fogarty (I’ve been telling you about her podcast for years!).
Tweet It!
Want to help make this a huge event online? Got Twitter? Use this hashtag to tweet about the event, contests people are having, and other grammar topics over the next few days: #grammarday
Head over to the National Grammar Day site and get tons of great grammar goodies:
- A National Grammar Day theme song
- A free National Grammar Day e-card
- Free teaching materials
- Winners from a language poetry contest
- Pictures of messed up signs from the Grammar Girl Flickr group
- A songwriting hall of shame playlist
- Links to John McIntyre’s grammar noir series
- Grammar T-shirts
- …and even more!
The occasion is brought to you by The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG), which is “for pen-toters appalled by wanton displays of Bad English,”
SPOGG is for people who crave good, clean English — sentences cast well and punctuated correctly. It’s about clarity. And who knows how many of the world’s huge problems could be solved if we had a little more of that?
SPOGG is free to join and you get entertaining newsletters about grammar, so do check it out.
How will you participate in National Grammar Day this year?
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[...] I'm glad we have a day to celebrate grammar and to share our passion with others. If your hearts skiNational Grammar Day – Did you know that March 4th is National Grammar Day? Well, it is, so celebrate! In all [...]
That’s an awesome song. I also clicked around and learned a thing or two (from the 10 language myths article).
.-= Kelvin Kao´s last blog ..When a Gnome Meets a Wizard =-.
Every year on National Grammar Day, I try to learn something new
Thanks, Kelvin.
Yay for Grammar Day!
.-= Positively Present´s last blog ..7 ways to travel the road to your passion =-.
I know! I’m glad there’s a day to raise awareness about good grammar. Again, I’m all for breaking the rules and I definitely prefer casual, conversational writing, which often does defy proper grammar, but it’s good to know what’s technically correct.
National Grammar Day was a worldwide trending topic on Twitter today http://bit.ly/9Tl8dd
That’s awesome! Thanks for letting us know.