Today is National Grammar Day, established in 2008 by Martha Brockenbrough. This year Mignon Fogarty, a.k.a. "Grammar Girl," is presiding. Here are some links to get you into the spirit.

National Grammar Day

Your Role in National Grammar Day

Ragan's Grammar Day Contest

Who Cares About National Grammar Day?

Earlier this month on Blog Excerpts we featured Alexandra D'Arcy's OUPblog post, "Ode to a Prescriptivist," which drew a sharp dichotomy between linguistic descriptivism and prescriptivism (personified by D'Arcy and her stern grandmother, respectively). D'Arcy's post inspired Stan Carey, a professional editor from Ireland, to write a typically thoughtful post on his blog, Sentence First.  Continue reading...

Poetry can be found in unexpected places. On 3 Quarks Daily, Richard Eskow takes transcriptions of his phone messages, as automatically processed by Google Voice, and turns them into hilarious gems of free verse. Check it out here.

On OUPblog, the official blog of Oxford University Press, sociolinguist Alexandra D'Arcy has kicked off a new column by penning an ode to her grandmother, "a firm advocate of correctness" who "in the proud tradition of language purists... found anything other than 'the standard' objectionable."  Continue reading...

Have you heard that "the average teenager uses just 800 words in daily communication"? Despite being widely reported in the media, this factoid simply isn't true. Linguist David Crystal debunks the myth here.

Boston Globe language columnist Jan Freeman has launched a new blog, "Throw Grammar from the Train" (subtitled "Notes from a Recovering Nitpicker"). It's a great title for what's sure to be a great outlet for clear-headed thinking about English usage. Read it here. (And read our interview with Jan about her new book, Ambrose Bierce's Write it Right, here.)