Today is National Grammar Day. Founded in 2008 by Martha Brockenbrough, writer and founder of National Grammar Day and the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG), it’s gained popularity and according to the Chicago Tribune, warranted a letter from President Bush on the first day of its creation. Read the article, “A toast to National Grammar Day,” here.
There are certain grammatical errors that make me cringe. The misuse of lose versus loose, there versus their and just misspelling words for cute, marketing reasons. Krispy, Cheeze, xtra and others that I can’t think of right now. Yes, I understand that there are plenty of internet sites that do that for marketing reasons — to make them stand out, but I don’t like it. I just don’t.
Not to say I’ve never shortened words to text but I really try not to! It doesn’t take that much more effort to type the correct spelling of the word. I bet if I read back through all my blogs I’d find plenty of grammatical errors. One that continues to plague me is using the word the twice in a sentence. I don’t know why I do it, but it seems to happen frequently.
But, I try. I loved English throughout school and always made A pluses. It interested me as much as Algebra terrified me.
Popular slang words have been added to the dictionary over the years. Y’all (think Paula Dean) is there and I’m good with that since I’m Southern and I use it frequently. Youse (think Jersey Shore – youse guys) is there as well. Both have the same meaning.
One word I will not accept is irregardless. Argh-h! (argh-h is not a word as far as I know; it’s more of an interpretation of my being frustrated and making one of those sounds that’s hard to spell). Although it (irregardless) is in the dictionary and according to that source was coined in the 20th century — an improper yoking of irrespective and regardless and for the logical absurdity of combining the negative ir- prefix and -less suffix in a single term. (I love that — “improper yoking”). 🙂
Grammer Girl says it’s acceptable to use “irregardless” in her Top Ten Grammar Myths (see number eight), but wow, did she get a barrage of comments on why it should not be used and it is not a word!
Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson went on a quest to seek out typos across the country and were featured on ABC after they spent over two months correcting those errors armed with sharpies and chalk. Read more here. That experience was turned into a book, The Great Typo Hunt. If you click on the link, you can view where they found those typos, state by state.
Anyway, Happy Grammar Day and please forgive any missppelings, wrong use of dashes, the the way I used semi-colons, misplaced and dangling modifiers, mixed metaphors, ambiguous references, unidiomatic approximations, wordiness, excessive detail, run-on sentences…..
Brigitte's Banter 
Great post Brigitte. Before my TBI, I had absolutely zero problems with grammar & spelling, A plus student in college. Now, post injury my brain fails to recognise (Yes, I am a Brit!) spelling mistakes & grammatical errors, even when spell check draws attention to my slip-ups! Very frustrating but nevertheless it is proving to be great source of re-training. Thank you for posting. 🙂
Posted by a BUMP to the HEAD | March 4, 2012, 8:25 pmThank you, Sharon. I did take time to read your post from yesterday as well and was amazed at what you had to go through and sympathies for what you are going through now. Your posts certainly reflect a way with words, precise prose and insight, so despite everything you have gone through, your lovely writing (and what you’re calling re-training) is obviously working. :).
Posted by Brigitte | March 4, 2012, 9:29 pmGood post, even though I make plenty of grammar mistakes. I think some of my problems is typing too fast, and not looking carefully at it.
Some things are incorrect but cool. For dialogue practice it’s nice to throw in a triple negative here and there. ‘you never meant nothing to nobody.’said the man with the rolex watch.
Keep posting blogs.
Posted by matt | March 5, 2012, 7:59 pmThe phrase you used below is great — gives the reader insight immediately to who the character is, maybe where he was from, etc., despite his wearing a Rolex. :). Funny!
Posted by Brigitte | March 6, 2012, 3:14 pmMaybe my triple negative dialogue was not the best example. But I think both the teachers I’ve had at Gotham are right, that grammer is less important for fiction. There are a lot of fragements in dialogue and elsewhere in classic fictional work.
I’d like to add to that the story takes precedence in fiction, and the content is the most important thing for non-fiction.
Posted by matt | March 5, 2012, 10:33 pmHey Matt– Thanks for stopping by to read and you are right — of course, characters’ voices don’t “speak” correctly and we have much leeway with that. I agree story is most definitely the most crucial element. I was referring more to those blatant grammatical mistakes, whether in fiction of non-fiction, we have to be careful. That’s where that editing comes into play. The same rules don’t apply (in fiction) as they once did, but when writing non-fiction, I think one tends to take a writer more seriously if those grammar rules are followed closely (the ones we all know about and were taught to abide by). Thank you for your comment(s) and great insight!
Posted by Brigitte | March 6, 2012, 3:10 pmYou’re blog entry wuz gr8t, thx! I should learn from typos: and grammar mistakes myself; I always make one too many, here and their. How to keep — these frisky dash marks — at bay? 😉
Posted by Chitra | March 5, 2012, 10:49 pmHa! We all make them and after reading over and over, we still don’t catch them all. I, too, use those dashes way too much — but I like them — so I’ll keep doing it until someone points it out and then maybe I’ll still do it.
Now wat I meen? :).
Posted by Brigitte | March 6, 2012, 3:12 pmI’m glad National Grammer day came and went and I didn’t know about it. terrifies teh life outa me…
Posted by ailialana | March 17, 2012, 10:39 pmI cringe when I read over something I’ve written and see a grammatical error, but we all make them, even the greats. Perfection, as much as I try is an impossible goal.
Posted by Brigitte | March 17, 2012, 10:56 pm