Explanation:
Martha Brockenbrough had had enough. She had seen the word abused and abased and simply wouldn’t stand for another instance of the poor innocent language being treated poorly in her presence. Not on her watch! So it was that Martha decided that all good verbs, adverbs, nouns, and adjectives deserved a day when people stood up for their rights and refused to allow them to be abused. No more would apostrophes be lost, forgotten, or misplaced. No more would we find commas left out and proper nouns in lower case; those days were in the past, and thus she wrote “Things that makes us [sic]” to help spread the word about poor grammar.
National Grammar Day was first held in 2008 and it’s still going strong. Martha Brockenbrough also happens to be the founder of the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar, which helps to promote excellent grammar all year. In the first year that the day was held, it was commemorated in a letter sent by former President George W. Bush. Even the chosen date has a special meaning. Brockenbrough chose March 4th because it’s also an instruction – “March forth!” She wants people to speak well, write well, and help others to do the same thing.
The day was developed not just to berate people for making the wrong grammar choices but also to celebrate the positive side of language. Good use of grammar and language ensures your intended meaning comes across. And once you have grasped the foundation of good grammar, you can use it to be creative, educational, informative and passionate about anything that you want to write about.
Grammar is a vital part of communication, as the inclusion or exclusion of certain grammatical elements can completely change the meaning of a sentence. What do you do when you see signs marked with a “Harsh Brown Potato” breakfast? Or grocer signs that announce that you can get your “Glutten Free” foods here? How about the time KEYE TV in Texas proclaimed “Department of Criminal Justice: What their doing to fix it”? Really, no matter where you go or what you do for a living, grammatical errors are a problem that we all need to be aware of.
