Finally, a little justice.
Now if only someone would do a study that proves something positive about having dark roots with blond hair ... or perhaps some scientific evidence that "Simpsons" fans are innately awesome ... Yeah, that's the world I want to live in ....
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There's a substantial Facebook group called "Good Grammar is Hot." AWAD god, Anu Garg, just joined. That's how I found out. And, of course, I joined too. I'm such a follower.
There's also a FB group called "NPR is Mad Sexy, Yo." And, yes, I'm a member. Yes, I'm a complete nerd.
Some might say we're delusional, but I say it's a matter of perspective. There are folks, for instance, who think that F** News is sexy and Sarah Palin is hot. Happily, from what I can tell (admitting that I haven't spent a lot of time--though at least a little--looking), there's no FB group for them. What I did find--well, let's say it mostly affirmed my own feelings.
I don't mind admitting that all of this greatly encourages me.
The article doesn't say what makes a grammatical error. Since there is a lot of misinformation about what is grammatical and what isn't, I think is more work for June to teach people the difference.
Wow. The very idea of teaching people "the difference" really drives home the most daunting element of the task: Undoing all the damage of fictional prohibitions (stuff like splitting infinitives and ending sentences with prepositions).
Sometimes I think about the group I hereby dub the "Generation Diagram," those people who were taught to diagram sentences in school. There's so much they could have helped subsequent generations with. I mean, just the answer to "what is a prepositional phrase?" could be so helpful to so many people I know. But, alas, the messages from that generation echo not as the truly useful stuff but in the form of nonsensical prohibitions.
I don't know whose fault it was. It just seems sad to me that that generation learned lots of good and lots of bad, but the messages that survived seem predominantly to be the bad ones.
I guess that's partly what I was trying to do with "Grammar Snobs" and "Mortal Syntax": Wash the bad taste out of people's mouths by ridiculing the people who gave/give grammar a bad name.
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