Today is National Grammar Day!

4 March 2009 36 views No Comment

Writers, it’s always a good idea to try to use good grammar whenever possible. (With the invention of the Internet it can often be tempting to throw good grammar to the wind.)

And if you don’t know how to spell something, use a dictionary! (My husband is dyslexic, and he calls me his built-in dictionary.)

In honor of this glorious day I’d like to introduce you to the recipients of the 2008 SPOGG Awards. (SPOGG stands for The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar, started by Martha Brockenbrough.)

So, without further ado… direct from the National Grammar Day website:

The 2008 SPOGG Awards

March 4 is National Grammar Day, and as part of our festivities, the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar is handing out SPOGG Awards to the U.S. city and to the U.S. celebrity with the worst grammar.

The City with the Worst Grammar in the U.S.

This year, the award goes to Columbia, South Carolina, where spelling is monumentally bad—at least in one particular cemetery. SPOGG member Chris Cole sent in the winning photo, which won by a substantial margin.

The mayor of Columbia, Bob Coble, had no comment. Read more…

The Celebrity with the Worst Grammar in the U.S.

This year, the award goes to President George W. Bush, who does not realize the plural of “child” is “children,” not “childrens.”

He beat Paris Hilton, who produced T-shirts that say “THATS HOT” without the apostrophe, and Courtney Love, who generates so many errors per inch of text on her blog that even the best instruments known to grammar scientists have failed to record them all. (See the contestants in their full glory.)

SPOGG thanks its members for their submissions and votes. SPOGG would also like to note that this contest is completely unscientific, and that the SPOGG Awards have a cash value of less than 1/20th of a cent.

Till next year…

Don’t forget to visit the following sites:
Martha’s site
Martha’s blog
The SPOGG site
The SPOGG blog
The National Grammar Day website

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Julia Temlyn is the editor of Writers Remember, as well as a freelance writer, editor, and community moderator, and owns her own firm, Temlyn Writing Services, where she works diligently with clients to rescue excess apostrophes, save spliced commas, and repair injured & abused words. She is also the editor of Musical Reviewer, blogger at Mrs. Write Right, Word Therapist and A Mom at Heart, and administrator of the Houston Writers & Editors Network. When she is not providing word therapy, she enjoys taking in a Broadway musical and spending time with her incredible husband. Julia can be found on Twitter (@JuliaTemlyn). E-mail Julia at editor[AT]writersremember.com.