Lazy Monday

Totally stealing this from the Copyediting newsletter because I have nothing more interesting to say . . .

Except for this: Although I'm still only in the opening pages of The Subversive Copyeditor, I'm liking it very much and would therefore recommend purchasing it as part of your Grammar Day celebration.

Subject: National Grammar Day

It's not official, of course, but the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (S.P.O.G.G.) and its sponsor, MSN Encarta, have declared March 4 to be National Grammar Day. I've thought of a few ways you could celebrate it:

• Support a grammarian: buy a book. On the affordable end, try the very readable Woe is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English, by Patricia T. O'Conner. If you can splurge, acquaint yourself with "the definitive grammar for the new millennium" (according to the marketing copy), The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, by Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum.
  
  
• Read the Language Log blog (where Pullum and others share their thoughts free of charge).
  
  
• Check out the Bad Grammar Hall of Fame playlist on the S.P.O.G.G. Web site. It's a collection of songs the society's members say they love despite the bad grammar in them, and you can play all 12 of them using a media player that is provided right on the site—perfect mood music for the National Grammar Day party I know you’re planning.
  
  
• Split an infinitive.
  
  
• Renew your subscription to Copyediting. (Okay, I'm biased.)
  
  
• Find a fellow grammar lover, then debate the use of singular blogs in the following sentence, taken from the description of a blog on the S.P.O.G.G. Web site:
  
  The Syntax Sisters
  United by blood and a love of grammar, this pair of sisters blogs about language and grammar using examples of real-world errors.
  
  
• Send your reports of how you celebrated National Grammar Day to me at wendalyn.nichols@copyediting.com, and I'll share your stories next week.

— Copyediting Tip of the Week

March 2, 2009