National Grammar Day: Earning my nerd status . . . again.

Hi, this is Emily. I bet you didn’t know today is a holiday – it’s National Grammar Day! The nerds of the world are excited. In honor of this blessed occasion, we’ve asked our friend and long-time reader Mary from Giving Up on Perfect to guest post about one of my favorite subjects, grammar. Thanks Mary! Happy National Grammar Day to the rest of you.

When I was in seventh grade, I drew the short straw when it came to English class. See, my middle school had two teachers who taught seventh-grade English. Mr. C was a bushy-haired, polyester-wearing hippie. Ms. B was a severe, frowning grammar dictator.

Everyone wanted to be in Mr. C’s class. Guess which class I was assigned to.

The rumors were true. Ms. B was mean. And demanding. And . . . a good teacher.

Yes, I admit it. I learned a lot in that seventh grade English class. For one, I learned how to recite all the pronouns. We had to memorize them, and really, what’s more fun for a 13-year-old than saying, “He, she, it” as fast as possible? (Try it. See how fun that is.)

For two, I learned to respect the English language. (I had to, or else I would have gotten an eighth hour.) I learned that proper grammar, along with our friends, punctuation and spelling (ah, yes, spelling), were important.

It was good timing, that class with its book reports and parts of speech and red pens, because my glory days were quickly coming to an end.

I’m talking about the days of the spelling bee, of course. Because it’s time to be honest: I’ve been a grammar nerd, a word nerd, a nerdy nerd for a really long time.

Based on this geeky history, which continued into high school with the academic team (Yeah. Go ahead and call it “nerd bowl.” You won’t be the first.), you probably won’t be surprised to learn that I am one of those. Those people who think you should use things like proper grammar and spell check, even in a blog post.

Especially in a blog post.

Today is National Grammar Day, and in honor of this most prestigious holiday (Why isn’t the bank closed, anyway?), I thought about sharing my favorite grammar tips with you. But then I sat down to write my tips, and I realized that so many others have said it before and said it better.

Instead, I’m going to share some fun grammar links with you. If you have even a tiny bit of the nerd in you, check out these sites:

• National Grammar Day: From tips to quizzes to podcasts (about grammar! Yay!), this site is full of grammar goodies.
• The Grammar Nazi Is In by Doritos for Dinner: I love this, and, as I mentioned, I couldn’t have said it better myself.
• The “Blog” of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks: Need I say more?
• The Grammar Blog says it’s been mocking poor grammar since 2007. I like that. I like the mocking. It’s good.

That’s all for today, class. Have a wonderful Grammar Day, and please, for the love of red pens and AP Stylebooks, use your spell check.

When she’s not proofreading ads, editing newsletter articles or writing perfectly punctuated press releases, Mary can be found at her blog, Giving Up on Perfect. And yes, she sees the irony in that blog name when compared to her obsession with all things grammar.

(oh hi, it’s Emily again. I just had to butt in and say how much I enjoyed this blog post, and how much I relate to it. I had a “Ms. B” as well, except mine was a “Mrs. R.” All of you Valley View people out there, say it with me now… am, is, are, was, were…)