The National Grammar Day is a holiday that started not so long ago. Unlike the Independence Day or St. Patrick’s Day it does not have a centuries-old history, but what it has is only eight years. So, now all the readers may say that they bore witness to the birth of a new tradition. This day was just a way to help the students appreciate grammar more. It has started in the USA, but now it is also celebrated in Europe. There are so many ways to celebrate it, but each of them involves fun studying and abiding to the grammatical rules. This day is not about criticizing other people, it is about improving the way you speak and write and also about correcting you own mistakes. Our blog is dedicated to grammar, therefore this day is a cause for a great celebration here, so we decided to tell our reader about the National Grammar day and give some tips on how to spend it productively.
The fact that the National Grammar Day happens only once a year, on the 4th of April does not mean that this is the only day when you learn your grammar, it means that until the next one comes, you must become much better than you were the year before. Martha Brockenbrough introduced this day exactly when the student already began to lose the notion of grammar itself. With all the texting, twitting and messaging, the young people often forget to check whether their sentences are correct, even better, they shorten the word and omit prepositions, articles and comas just to get the message through faster. The funny thing is, they just make it worse. An incorrect sentence simply brings about a misunderstanding and there will certainly be a need to write it again.
Do Not Forget These Rules on the National Grammar Day or Ever
To assure your correct writing, you must always remember certain rules, and the National Grammar day is a good opportunity to revise all you already know. For instance, you must never forget the apostrophes and comas, because these are the most confusing of all, or the lack thereof. The homophones are the funniest of all when confused and used instead of each other, like you may say “My ant has just come into town”. Of course you mean your aunt, and when you say it no one knows which word you mean, but should you only write it and it becomes clear that this is a case of some misplaced word. The list of homophones is not that large, so you are sure to learn it without a difficulty.
The thing about this special day is that it reminds us to keep check of our language and not to neglect it. It prompts us to read the books, which we haven’t read yet, or were supposed to read at school, but were too lazy to do it. And if you have something really important to write, then better do it with an online spellchecker or check your grammar online, never forget o always proofread everything you have written. Some mistakes are masterfully hidden and reveal themselves only after you’ve read the text for the second time.
On the National Grammar day it became customary to share tips about the correct grammar with everyone else and to tell jokes about funny mistakes. The mistakes we make in our everyday conversations may come and go unnoticed, but the mistakes we make when writing are the ones that take away points from us. The main confusion comes with the use of “your” and “you’re”, which sound the same, but have totally different meaning: “you’re” means “you are”, while “your” is a possessive adjective used only with a following noun. When you write and ate not sure which one to use it is better to avoid the short versions and write the full ones: like “it is” instead of “it’s”, in order not to confuse it with “its”.
How to Spend the National Grammar Day Productively
The 4th of March is all about learning and training, becoming better with your grammar and becoming better in the eyes of others, because good grammar always stands for good education, and we all want to be surrounded with only smart people, people we can talk with on different subjects. So why not take the opportunity of this day and become one of those people? Why not start reading more and improve our grammar, spelling and vocabulary? There is nothing to lose here, only to gain.
Reading books on grammar or watching TV shows about grammar is not a waste of time, it is the contribution into your present and future, it is your effort to be better than yesterday. The National Grammar Day is a reminder that we all should do more when it concerns our language and our writing. No one wants to make the list of people made fun of because of their grammar and there are those who constantly watch for grammatical mistakes and sit waiting when you do one.
When you are not the reading type, but you want to honor the National Grammar Day, you may take a creative approach and go through the texts of your favorite songs looking for grammatical mistakes and try to correct them, later you can even sing the song aloud with the right grammar just for the fun of it – the would probably not rhyme anymore.
If you are still a student, or belong to the people who keep all their school and college stuff, you may try going through all your essays from the years before and looking for the mistakes you didn’t understand at the time. When they look ridiculous to you now, it only means that you have improved your grammar immensely over the last couple of years. There are many websites that will help you with your search for mistakes and help you learn more about grammar in a fun and relaxing way.