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National Grammar Day

The US are celebrating National Grammar Day today, and I'm sure that the parties will be numerous and exciting. Having spent seven tortuous years marking thousands of undergraduate essays at UTas, the dire state of proper English is something far dearer to my heart than the odd murdered whale or a smidgen of global warming!

But now you can help. Visit the website for more info.

The good folks at Mental Floss are doing their bit, encouraging readers to make personal National Grammar Day resolutions, applying the logic that innumerable micro actions yield impressive macro results. After thinking long and hard about it (fnarr, fnarr), my own personal resolution will be to pay more attention to the compounded hyphen. I know, I know, it's a big call, but we all have to do our bit.

Thus from this day forth, I vow to use a hyphen when joining two or more words to serve as a single adjective before a noun. However (and this is the tricky part), when compound modifiers come after a noun, I shall not hyphenate.
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Comments

Fernando Klabin said…
Dear Kris,
Thank you very much for your comment and your words regarding my blog. It is always important and encouraging to know we are not speaking "to the walls". I am glad to find out that someone in Australia enjoys my humble attempt to spread the word about this fascinating country which is not even mine... Thank you indeed for including its link onto your own blog!
warm regards from the Balkans
Fernando
fernandokla@gmail.com
6 March 2008 at 00:06
Kris McCracken said…
No problem, it's a very interesting blog. I'd encourage all three of the people to look at mine to pop over and have a look!
6 March 2008 at 09:05
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