National Grammar Day is something you should take note of. The affect of National Grammar Day is to hopefully insure than you make less mistakes in writing, e.g. that everyone will write good enough to be understood by people like you and I. And read their blog which can be found here to see the “Top 10 Grammar Tips.”
I covered National Grammar Day a little late last year. Language Log had made a suggestion:
Paul Kiparsky has noted on several occasions that while in some European countries the prescribing of language forms for certain public purposes is the job of official bodies, which normally include language scholars (as well as literary figures), this sort of regulation has been PRIVATIZED in English-speaking countries: it’s managed by commercial publishers, newspaper and magazine editors, and a whole industry of free-lance advisers, only a few of whom know much about either the nature of language or the structure and history of English. Such an arrangement resonates with American free-enterprise ideals and also with the widespread American disdain for “experts” and “intellectuals”. . . .
This year, while the public sector is swallowing the private sector whole, a proposal to create a government-controlled language authority could easily be inserted into some omnibus bill. It’s still a bad idea. But it might have one redeeming feature if it required the U.S. Department of Grammar to read proposed legislation before passage, since our representatives don’t have the time.
Image by Chubby Bat – Creative Commons
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