March Forth!

Today Is The Second National Grammar Day

If you don't have a good handle on basic grammar, you can't always say what you mean. People might be able to guess your meaning, but not every time.

Martha Brockenbrough

Do you adore clean, correct sentences? Do ungrammatical advertisements make you cringe? That is why the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar and MSN Encarta have designated March 4 as National Grammar Day.

The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG) and National Grammar Day are the brainchild of Seattleite Martha Brockenbrough. Brockenbrough is a columnist with Microsoft's Encarta and authors the very useful and entertaining SPOGG blog.

Found on the SPOGG Blog this year is Things That Make Us [Sic]... her new book about hilarious bad grammar and how you can avoid making those mistakes yourself.

One of my favorite sections of the SPOGG Blog is the Blogs We Love list. The best of the best Grammar and Language Blogs can be found in this extensive list. Try them all, but don't miss Grammar Monkeys; from the copy desk at the Wichita Eagle, they want to prevent you from slipping on the various banana peels of language.

Loving Family, Loving Language has prepared a few misplaced modifiers for the celebration. My favorite:

6. Sam screamed at the barking dog in his underwear. (It is accompanied by a photographic example.)

This year they've added a Bad Grammar Hall of Fame Playlist, full of songs they love despite their bad grammar. Oh, yes! Lay Lady Lay! Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic! Is your favorite here? I'm listening right now.

Seattleites are very serious about grammar. The good, the bad, and the ugly can all be found displayed at the SPOGG Blog. I am one of the 6,000 members of the Society, even though you'd never know it from the grammar usage in my blog posts -- I am not worthy. We in Seattle are so serious about our grammar we even correct our graffiti and have our own cocktail, the Grammartini. (Recipes are here.)

So, let's party like we know where to place that comma,
colon, semicolon or apostrophe.
Celebrate National Grammar Day -- Break Out Those Red Pens!
Oh, and a Grammartini!

__________

Inspiration and material borrowed heavily from Martha Brockenbrough. Nobody does it better!

Photograph Courtesy -- SPOGG