I missed Punctuation and Grammar Days
Neither are official-official holidays so there are no consequences. I’ll do better next year getting my blogs up on the actual dates, but in the meantime, here is my white-rabbit-late blog.
If you’re not familiar with the designation, both days are set aside to celebrate the underappreciated art of using correct grammar.
Jeff Rubin selected Sept. 24 in 2004 to be National Punctuation Day as “a celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotation marks, and other proper uses of periods, semicolons, and the ever-mysterious ellipses.”
Martha Brockenbrough, founder of the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar, added March 4 as National Grammar Day to encourages everyone to use grammar correctly in both verbal and written language.
I love the reasoning behind the date. The National Grammar Day website states. “Language is something to be celebrated, and March 4 is the perfect day to do it. It’s not only a date, it’s an imperative: March forth on March 4 to speak well, write well, and help others do the same!”
These days our communication relies increasingly on our written word skills. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t email or text or post comments on social media. Correct grammar and punctuation are important.
I always need help with grammar and punctuation. If you have as much trouble as I do, here are my recommendations:
For help understanding how each punctuation mark is used, try this fabulous clickable chart here. Once on the page, you click on the punctuation mark and a page with the explanation opens.
Nitty-Gritty Grammar is a humorous guide to correct grammar.
Or for serious writing, try The Elements of Style
For grammar help as I write in Word 365, I use Editor, an editing tool embedded in the word processor.
For Grammar help when composing emails and social media posts, I have installed the Grammarly software program.
You can get the free version or pay for a premium version at https://www.grammarly.com/
Lastly, just for fun, enjoy this YouTube version of Victor Borge’s Phonetic Punctuation skit. It’s old but still hilarious any day of the year.
