March 4, 2010, is National Grammar Day, hosted this year by my colleague,
“Grammar Girl” (Mignon Fogarty). Join in
the festivities by checking out Grammar Girl’s Web site.
Next to Thanksgiving, National Grammar Day is my favorite holiday. Please take 10 or 20 minutes out of your day, and ponder the wonder of language and grammar; thank a teacher who made a difference; show appreciation for a parent, an aunt, or a coworker who helped you learn to speak and write better.
Happy Grammar Day!
Here is a tongue-in-cheek look at some important Grammar 101 “rules":
1. Each pronoun should agree with their antecedent.
2. Just between you and I, case is important.
3. Verbs has to agree with their subject.
4. A writer should not shift your point of view.
5. Don't write a run-on sentence you have to punctuate it.
6. In articles books memos and materials like that we use commas to keep
things apart. Without them we would have without doubt confusion.
7. But, don't use, commas, which are not, necessary.
8. Its important to use apostrophe’s correctly.
9. Don’t abbrev. unless nec.
10. Kuteness makes u look dumb, so make sure
11. Use Capital Letters correctly.
12. Check to see to if you any words out.
13. In my opinion and way of thinking, based on my long experience, I
think and opine that an author or writer when he or she is writing something
that he or she should not get accustomed to the habit or mode of operation of
making use of too many redundant unnecessary words or phrases that he or she
does not actually really require or need in order to put his or her thoughts or
message across to the reader of the article or whatever he or she is writing.
14. About repetition and effective writing, the repetition of a word is not
usually effective.
15. Don’t runyour words together.
16. To effectively write, avoid splitting infinitives. It’s better not to
unnecessarily split an infinitive.
17. Be carefully to use adjectives and adverbs correct
18. Eschew polysyllabic profundity. Also, eschew sesquipedalian
obfuscation.
19. Your probably aware that their are sometimes mistakes when writing
“there” or “they’re” instead of “their” and “your” instead of “you’re.”
20. Use hyphens in compound-words, not just in any two-word phrase.
21. Watch out that in your writing that you don't have have an extra word
in your sentence.
22. You all should avoid regional speech patterns.
23. Only Proper Nouns should be capitalized.
24. Too many rules stifle creativity. Do not make up your own rules.
Failure to observe this will result in dismissal.
25. If your verb tenses agreed, you have written a good sentence.
26. Proofreading is improtant.
27. Make each pronoun agree with their antecedent.
28. Join clauses good, like a conjunction should.
29. Its important to use apostrophe’s correctly.
30. Last, but not least, at the end of the day, when it’s all said and
done, knock off the clichés!
