National Grammar Day: What It Is

March 4 is National Grammar Day! Discover more about this literary holiday and explore all the ways you can celebrate this grammar day with no errors.

Despite my strongest efforts to establish myself as a writing expert in the blogging community, it’s my grammar blog posts that gather the most readers to KLWightman.com. No matter how many times I write about creativity and editing and creative writing, my readers really want to know if they should say holiday or holidays.

Google and Bing can back me up on this one.

With the next literary holiday coming up being about grammar, it should be no surprise that it’s my blog topic for this week.

That’s right—National Grammar Day falls on March 4. For those not in the know, I encourage you to keep reading to learn what is National Grammar Day and how you can celebrate this grammar-themed holiday this week.

What is National Grammar Day?

We celebrate National Grammar Day every year on March 4 to promote proper grammar rules in our writing, from a short email to a long essay. It’s a safe-space kind of day where you can ask all of your grammar-related questions without judgement from peers.

Is it you’re or your? Who or whom? Affect or effect? Good or well?

Is it okay to use a split infinitive? Can I end a sentence with a preposition? Should the Oxford comma stay or go? 

Most days, we’re too shy to ask these questions because of the ridicule that often follows. National Grammar Day exists so that you have one 24-hour span of time to be courageous with your grammar questions, no matter how basic or complex the rule may be. 

Who is Martha Brockenbrough?

We can thank Martha Brockenbrough for the existence of National Grammar Day. She founded this day back in 2008 because “language is something to be celebrated, and March 4 is the perfect day to do it. It’s not only a date, it’s an imperative: March forth on March 4 to speak well, write well, and help others do the same!”

Couldn’t say it better myself, Martha.

It takes only a quick glance at Ms. Brockenbrough’s accolades to see that, to her, grammar is life. Her career highlights include holding the role of editor at MSN.com and educational humor columnist at Encarta.com (may it rest in peace), not to mention all the fiction and non-fiction books she’s written.

She also wrote this grammar gem of a book in 2008: Things That Make Us [Sic]. It wasn’t long before she founded The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG) and established National Grammar Day to happen every year on March 4.

How Can I Celebrate National Grammar Day?

There are many ways that you can partake in this special grammar holiday:

• Learn a new grammar rule
• Search for grammar mistakes in your favorite forms of content
• Take a grammar quiz
• Host a grammar-related debate
• Call the Grammar Police at the University of West Florida
• Tell a few grammar jokes
• Follow #NationalGrammarDay on Twitter

How do you plan to celebrate National Grammar Day? Share your plans in the comments section below.