Q&A with Martha Brockenbrough, Founder of National Grammar Day

Martha Brockenbrough is the founder of National Grammar Day and author of The Game of Love and Death, which comes out April 28 and has received starred reviews from Kirkus Books and Publishers Weekly. Martha recently spoke with the Grammarly team to provide some insight into National Grammar Day and to share her perspective on language.

Grammarly: You established National Grammar Day in 2008. When did you realize that such a holiday was necessary?

Martha: “Necessary” might not be the first word I’d choose. Food, water, love, underpants. All of these are necessary things. But I knew National Grammar Day would be a lot of fun. Fun is necessary, too, and as soon as I learned the holiday did not yet exist, I set about creating it. I was inspired by the high school students I was teaching at the time. They needed a bit of help with their grammar, and I wanted to make the learning experience lively and positive. Everyone can probably remember that teacher who made grammar seem difficult or unpleasant. I wanted to show my students the fun they could have with language. They more they knew about how it worked, the more they could do, much in the same way you play better basketball when you know all of the rules.

Speaking of rules: Much has been said about the fact that many so-called rules in our language aren’t. That’s quite true. But it doesn’t mean people don’t have certain expectations about the grammar we use. Hiring managers, potential dates: People will judge you if your grammar is non-standard, just as they will judge you for wearing a Speedo to a black-tie event (even with a black tie, which would be the worst).

G: What is your biggest grammar pet peeve?

M: I try not to keep too many pet peeves. That said, every time I see “your” instead of “you’re,” my soul shrivels a little more.

G: Is there a grammar rule you don’t mind bending/breaking?

M: There are plenty of so-called “rules” that really and truly aren’t. It’s fine, for example, to begin a sentence with a conjunction. You probably don’t want to do this a lot, because it makes your writing sound choppy. But it’s perfectly fine style. Same goes for ending a sentence with a preposition.

As a novelist, though, I routinely and purposefully bend the language as many ways as I possibly can to create memorable characters who feel authentic. All we have with novels are words, and out of this, we create not only worlds, but all of their inhabitants. Books breathe, in many cases, because of the artful bending of words, punctuation, and expectations. Mark Twain, an absolute genius with language (and a proponent of simplified spelling), depended utterly on making rubber out of rules. Imagine how awful it would be if someone standardized the grammar in Huckleberry Finn. That would be like putting a tasteful blouse on the Venus de Milo.

Again, it’s about context. If you’re applying for a job with the Queen, spray the starch and follow the most formal conventions. If you’re doing something else, then do whatever it takes to do it well.

G: Oxford Comma, yes or no?

M: It depends. I write for a variety of publications. Some follow Associated Press Style, which is a serial comma killer.

Some don’t. When I write books, for example, I use the Oxford comma.

If I were in charge of the world, I suppose I’d urge use of the Oxford comma. It’s easy to point out cases where confusion arises without it. My favorite is the one that says, “We invited the strippers, JFK, and Stalin.” This is not the same as “We invited the strippers, JFK and Stalin.” (For the record, I would pay many folded single dollar bills to watch JFK and Stalin strip together.) What’s more, we no longer live in an age where we’re communicating via telegraph, so we don’t need conserve characters in quite the same way we used to, except on Twitter.

That said, the opposite confusion can sometimes arise. Consider this: “For my sister, an orangutan, and Jerome…” It’s unclear whether the speaker’s sister is an orangutan.

This is why you have to pay attention to every sentence you write. Communicating what you mean in a way that other people can understand is the goal. (That and inventing time travel so we can all catch that hot Cold War stripper act.)

G: Why is good grammar important? Isn’t it enough that we all “kind of” understand each other?

M: Tell that to the person who wrote the contract between Rogers Communication and Atlantic Canada. One rogue comma ended up costing Rogers something like $1 million a year. Most of us won’t be in a situation like this, but any time you write a letter, a personal ad, a job application, a Facebook status post, or even a tweet, you’re putting yourself into the world for all to judge and potentially misunderstand. Just as you wouldn’t want to go outside with your pants only “kind of” zipped, you want to give yourself the best chance of making whatever connection you seek. It saves all sorts of heartache and embarrassment, not to mention the occasional heap of cash.

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Thank you, Martha! Happy National Grammar Day.

Curious to know what kind of grammar nerd you are? Take Grammarly’s quiz in honor of National Grammar Day.

Realise or Realize?

Realise and realize are different spellings of the same word, and they can be used interchangeably. Both are common throughout the English-speaking world, though in different areas. Realize is preferred in American and Canadian English, while realise is preferred outside North America.

You can find more details about these spelling differences below.

Realise or Realize—Which Should I Use?

People associate a lot of things with British culture—one of them is how different British English is from American English, spelling included. Let’s compare realise and realize.

Consider your audience. For American readers, the -ize ending is probably the way to go. While both endings might be correct according to your dictionary of choice, you could unnecessarily alienate your audience if you insist on using -ise. Elsewhere, preferences might not be as strong, but they might view -ize as an American spelling. What is important is that you are consistent. For example, if you decide to go with realize, you should use the -ize ending for all verbs that can be spelled with either -ize or -ise. By doing so, you will minimize the risk of someone thinking you’ve made a mistake.

The -ise ending is actually newer than the -ize ending. In Britain and other countries, it became popular after 1875, when it began appearing in news articles. However, the -ise ending didn’t catch on in the United States or in British science periodicals and professional journals. For that reason, you will see both verb endings in British literature.

Oxford University Press, a British publisher, prefer to use the -ize ending for words that derive from the Greek suffix -izo. Doing so reflects the origins of verbs and nouns, such as realization, organization, and privatization. An -ise ending could erroneously suggest that the verbs derive from the French verbs réaliser, organiser, or privatiser. That’s not to say that Oxford style always condemns -ise endings. To illustrate, the -ise of televise doesn’t have a Greek origin, so that -ise ending is A-okay.

Examples

People do not seem to realise that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We’re living in science fiction, but we don’t realize it.

Terry Pratchett

Adding this up, Woolworths could realise up to $1bn on the sale.

The Australian

Worse than not realizing the dreams of your youth would be to have been young and never dreamed at all.

Jean Genet

Which do you prefer—realise or realize? Will you choose the spelling most popular where you live?

Q&A with Grammar Girl, Mignon Fogarty

Mignon Fogarty is the founder the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast network, the creator of of the Grammar Girl website (one of Writer’s Digest’s 101 Best Websites for Writers in 2012, 2013, and 2014), and the creator and host of the Grammar Girl podcast (Best Education Podcast in the 2012 and 2013 Podcast Awards). 

The Grammarly team recently chatted with Mignon about grammar, language, and National Grammar Day (March 4).

Grammarly: How did you become such a recognized grammar expert?

Grammar Girl: I’m not certain how it happened. My first Grammar Girl project was the podcast, but when it launched, it was just a hobby and I was working full time, so I wasn’t watching the traffic closely. Within a few weeks it was #2 in all of podcasting at iTunes and the success took me by surprise. Four months after the podcast launched, the Wall Street Journal picked the Grammar Girl website as their pick of the day, and I started getting book-deal offers and eventually partnered with Macmillan to write Grammar Girl books and to manage and expand the Quick and Dirty Tips network, of which Grammar Girl is a part.

Since the beginning, my readers and listeners have been wonderfully enthusiastic and supportive. The success of Grammar Girl is all because of them. Early on, I got a lot of e-mail messages from listeners telling me how much they loved the show and that they had shared it with all of their friends.

I also like to think that I’m recognized as an expert because I thoroughly research every topic I cover. I see a lot of people commenting online about what they think are grammar rules, but they’re going on their memory or what they learned in grade school, and they’re often incorrect. Readers and listeners learn that they can trust that I have looked up the rules and history of a topic and that I’m not just spouting my own opinions. In fact, I so diligently avoid inserting my opinion that at times my book editors have had to remind me that sometimes people actually do want to know what I think.

Grammarly: What is your biggest grammar pet peeve?

Grammar Girl: After years of answering people’s questions about grammar, seeing how they struggle, and writing about it, I don’t really have any pet peeves. The more research I do, the more I discover that many hard-and-fast rules are just consensus opinions or suggestions, such as the “rules” about splitting infinitives or that using passive voice is always wrong. I guess it mildly annoys me when I see words capitalized that shouldn’t be, but I don’t get too worked up about it.

Grammarly: Is there a grammar rule you don’t mind bending/breaking?

Grammar Girl: I can’t think of any hard-and-fast rules that I would break, but because the articles on my website are also the scripts to my audio podcasts, I write them in an informal, conversational style. For example, I often start sentences with conjunctions and use contractions. Those things aren’t wrong, but sometimes people think they are, and it is definitely a casual writing style.

Grammarly: Oxford Comma, yes or no?

Grammar Girl: My Twitter fan @ravishlydotcom asked me this question in December. I tend to favor the Oxford comma because it makes things more clear and avoids the rare potential ambiguities.

Grammarly: Why is good grammar important? Isn’t it enough that we all “kind of” understand each other?

Grammar Girl: Good grammar has become even more important today than it was ten or fifteen years ago. It’s common to meet people online now, so the quality of your writing has a huge influence on the first impression you make on people. I like to say that instead of “dressing for success,” you need to “write for success.” I have an article that my friend Martha Brockenbrough (who founded National Grammar Day in 2008) wrote about the importance of good grammar and how it can help you stay out of jail, keep your job, and even find love.

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Mignon Fogarty is the author of the New York Times best-seller Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing and six other books on writing. She was recently appointed to be the Donald W. Reynolds Chair of Media Entrepreneurship in the Reynolds School of Journalism and Advanced Media Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno.

Thanks, Mignon, for your time!

Curious to know what kind of grammar nerd you are? Take Grammarly’s quiz in honor of National Grammar Day.

5 Reasons the Writing World Should Celebrate Dyslexia

Guest Post by Doug Sprei and Jules Johnson, LearningAlly.org

For many people with dyslexia, writing and spelling are some of the most challenging activities in daily life. And yet in the midst of this difficulty, a world of creative thinking is awakened. Some of the most acclaimed authors, business leaders, scientists, and innovators are dyslexic. The next time you switch on a light bulb or reach for a favorite book, consider the following reasons that dyslexia is something to be celebrated.

Millions of people have dyslexia – and their different brains add to the extraordinary diversity of humanity.

Studies by leading researchers such as Dr. Sally Shaywitz of Yale University indicate that as many as one in five individuals have dyslexia. Their findings also prove that dyslexia is decidedly not an indicator of intelligence. 

People with dyslexia who struggle to read, spell, and write are often bright and innovative thinkers who excel in many disciplines. The list of celebrities in this category includes film director Steven Spielberg, financial magnate Charles Schwab, entrepreneur Richard Branson, activist Erin Brockovich, lawyer David Boies . . . the roster is panoramic.

 

So what’s going on? “Our education system looks at dyslexia as a deficit rather than as a difference,” says Dr. Maryanne Wolf, director of the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University. Wolf and other prominent educators embrace the term cerebral diversity to help people understand that there really is no one standard brain organization. “For its own survival, the human species needs differences,” she says. “And the brain of an individual with dyslexia has certain unique features that help our society advance.”

Terrible spellers can be great writers – and thinkers.

Agatha Christie once recounted that “Writing and spelling were always terribly difficult for me. I was an extraordinarily bad speller and have remained so until this day.” From an internationally acclaimed author, that may be a shocking admission, but Christie was far from alone in struggling with dyslexia. A list of her peers includes poet Philip Schulz and playwright Wendy Wasserstein (both Pulitzer Prize winners), children’s book author Rick Riordan, and novelist John Irving, to name just a few.

As a young student with dyslexia, writer and filmmaker Sprague Theobald struggled against authority figures saying that he was stupid and would never accomplish anything. “Mostly, my job now is to not acknowledge the damaging voices from my past school years,” he says. “If you are a stickler for spelling and don’t understand why a person may have spelling issues, let me give you a spelling test of Greek words with a police siren blaring in your right ear and a fire siren blaring in your left ear. That’s about how confusing and challenging spelling can be for those of us who are blessed with dyslexia.”

We might still be writing by candlelight if not for dyslexia.

A six year-old student was once sent home from school with a note from his teacher pinned to his shirt. It read, “This boy is too stupid to learn.” Decades later, he recalled, “My teachers said I’m addled, my father thought I was stupid, and I almost decided I must be a dunce.” The boy, Thomas Edison, went on to invent the first commercially practical incandescent light. His example is illuminating for children with learning disabilities who feel crushed when labels are pinned on them – and can even provide “light bulb moments” for parents anxious to buoy their spirits.

Assistive technology is a “ramp” for dyslexic writers and readers.

People with dyslexia often have no problem verbalizing great ideas, but can be frustrated when they have to put those ideas in writing. They can also sometimes be dysgraphic, which makes the physical act of writing with a pencil and paper extremely difficult. And of course reading brings on a huge host of challenges.

Fortunately there are a variety of tech tools that can help them translate their ideas into writing.  “When it comes to editing their writing, dyslexics can use advanced spelling and grammar checkers,” says assistive technology specialist Jamie Martin. “For reading and research, human-narrated audiobooks from Learning Ally can be downloaded and accessed on computers, tablets, and smartphones. Word prediction and dictation software can go a long way in removing the barrier of poor spelling for dyslexics; and any kind of electronic writing can be the saving grace for people with dysgraphia.”

Dyslexia informs our past and future. Scientific acumen, creativity, and engineering ingenuity are only some of the gifts of the dyslexic brain. In young people, those gifts are not recognized and exalted often enough.

“I’m as much of a grammar and spelling nerd as anyone out there,” says educational therapist Diana Kennedy.  “On the other hand, I wouldn’t want to go head to head in a contest of science, art, or invention against Leonardo DaVinci, or of business acumen against Charles Schwab, or of movie-making against Steven Spielberg. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be proud of your prodigious spelling and grasp of complex grammar, but when it comes to dyslexia, it’s important to keep our pride in perspective.”

 

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Doug Sprei is national communications director and Jules Johnson is social media community leader at Learning Ally – a national nonprofit serving students with learning and visual disabilities. The organization provides resources for parents; training and technology for teachers and schools; and 80,000 human-narrated audio textbooks for K-12 through higher education. For more information, visit http://LearningAlly.org.

Train your brain with these 4 spelling tips and tricks

Amateur Something or someone that is amateur is non-professional. If you remember that amateur ends in a fancy French suffix (-eur), you’ll be able to spell this word correctly in both professional and non-professional situations.

Conscientious Conscientious means thorough, careful, or vigilant. If you have a strong conscience, you will be conscientious. You can remember the conscience by breaking it into “con” and “science.” Then the similarities between conscience and conscientious will help you remember the spelling for the latter.

Harass To harass means to fatigue or to tire with repeated and exhausting efforts. Don’t “harass” your fingers by making them type extra letters on the keyboard. Harass contains only one R.

License A license is an official authorization. You can remember the C in license by thinking that you don’t always need sense (spelled with an S) to get a license.

Do you know other spelling tips or tricks? Share them in the comments!

What Does Lmk Mean?

• Lmk is an abbreviation of let me know.
• The abbreviation is used the same way the spelled-out phrase is used, but you should avoid it in formal communication.

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When you need people to get back to you with additional information about something, lmk is one of the phrases you can use to ask for it.

The Meaning of Lmk

Lmk is short for let me know. People have been using it for at least fifteen years. By now it’s a staple of electronic communication.

How to Use Lmk

Lmk is an abbreviation you might find in work-related communication. However, if the communication in question requires a formal tone, or if you think the person you’re emailing doesn’t know what lmk stands for, it might be best to avoid using it. In that case, just use the full form instead. If you do use it in formal communication, remember that consistency is key when it comes to capitalization. Consistency is also nice to see in informal communication, but it’s not as important.

Examples

I’ll go if you go, but lmk what time so I can prepare.

I think I’m coming down with something. Lmk, I can change the reservation.

Lmk when you get the newest report.

15 Words English Borrowed From Chinese

When people are learning a language, often they learn the names of delicious foods. English has adopted the names of many Chinese dishes. However, you may be surprised to realize that many other everyday words and phrases are also borrowed from various dialects of Chinese.

Foods

Bok choy is an Asian green that can be cooked or eaten raw. In Chinese, the expression derives from words meaning “white vegetable” because of the white stalks. Ketchup, also spelled catsup, is thought to derive from Chinese words referring to the juice of an eggplant. Oolong, literally meaning black dragon, and pekoe, meaning white hair, are types of tea. In fact, the word tea itself comes from a Chinese word! Other Chinese food words include ginseng and lychee.

Animals

Many cultures love dogs, and the Chinese are no exception. From them, we get the names of many dog breeds. Shar peis, a breed distinctive for loose wrinkly skin, get their name from Chinese words meaning “sand” and “fur.” We also get the breed name for shih tzus from Chinese words meaning “lion dog.”

Expressions

The expression chop chop, an impatient way of telling someone to hurry up, comes from a Chinese expression with a similar meaning. Yin Yang describes the interaction of darkness and brightness. Gung ho, which in English means enthusiastically or wholeheartedly, has an interesting story. A U.S. Marine officer used the phrase as a training slogan after learning the name of the Chinese Industrial Cooperative Society derived from a literal translation of the Chinese expression for “work together.”

Other Cool Things

Many martial art forms, such as tai chi and kung fu, owe their names to their Chinese origin. Mahjong is a fun matching game that many enjoy. Rickshaw is an alternative name of jinrikisha, a small cart pulled by a human driver that was once very popular in China and Japan.

This article contains only a few words adopted from Chinese. With a little investigation of your own, you will discover many more Chinese words embedded in the English language. Why not brainstorm with your family and friends to see how many more you know?