Today, 4th March, is National Grammar Day in the US. I would like to see this adopted in Britain, where standards of English writing are declining.
But what is grammar?
Many believe that grammar covers everything regarding language, including punctuation; however, grammar is distinct from this. It is the study of sentence structure and word structure and is something that is not taught in the majority of state schools.
The second paragraph of this post is grammatically incorrect: ‘But what is grammar?’ It begins with a co-ordinating conjunction; technically, words such as ‘and’, ‘or’ and ‘but’ should be used to link two clauses of equal importance. However, as many linguists acknowledge (to the chagrin of some grammar pedants) there’s nothing like breaking a few grammar rules to make your writing more lively, engaging and – well – less boring.
The concept of grammar has been lost for many who, like me, did not receive a grammar education at school, so it is unsurprising that some cannot distinguish between grammar and other aspects of language, such as punctuation. Yet grammar and punctuation go hand in hand and one cannot be taught without reference to the other. When teaching commas, for example, teachers need to talk about separating clauses and phrases; when students are unaware of these terms, learning to use commas becomes somewhat tricky.
I do remember learning aspects of punctuation at school, but the value of this went no further than capital letters and full stops. Commas were something we used ‘every time you need to take a breath’ and apostrophes were scattered liberally to any word ending in the letter ‘s’ with no correction. And as for colons and semi-colons …! (Oh yes: we learned what exclamation marks are but not how to use them correctly.)
The British are inclined to sneer at ‘Americanisms’ that find their way into British English, but awareness of grammar and punctuation needs to be pushed. If adopting a National Grammar Day helps to achieve this, I think this is one English lesson that Britain should learn from America.