Grammar Matters

Hi, Kris here. This isn't actually an episode of Grammar Matters, but I wanted to take a minute and make a disclaimer, lay down some Grammar Matters law.

Grammarians, you know, will argue over just about anything. In fact, English is such a confusing language that it offers a lot of fodder for fighting over. I'm just another English major who enjoys figuring out why we say the things we do, or why we say them how we do. I like grammar enough that I'm willing to go the extra mile to find out exactly how a word should be used or in what order to place words. So in the end, you'll be reading just another grammarian's opinion. If you're a grammarian too, it's bound to happen that you'll disagree with me or even that you'll find errors in my transcripts, and that's okay. I'm just here to provide a guide for those who might need help or to talk grammar with those who don't. Okay, well, to be fair, I'm mostly here for the fun of it, because I'm geeky like that.

Be sure to keep it nice. I love comments. They tell me that my episode generated enough interest to induce a response. But if you're trolling on my blog--and I will decide that arbitrarily--I will remove your comments. That means go ahead and disagree, but do it in a kindly fashion. And if I see the words "you're wrong" from the same commentor on every episode, you will be forcefully ejected from the building, ya feel me? This is my personal blogosphere-type virtual home, so I'm going to insist on a little respect. But don't make me moderate my comments. That just wouldn't be fun. So then, let's play with some words.

I know I've dropped the ball on Grammar Matters, but I have not forsaken it. I actually wrote the first four episodes of Grammar Matters and recorded the first one, but then I listened to what I'd recorded. After a while I just zonked out from boredom, woke up several weeks later, and here I am, rewriting my episodes in the hopes that I can make them more interesting and less sleep-inducing. I've decided to start a new blog entitled In Case You Can't Sleep, where I'll be airing the original four episodes of Grammar Matters. It'll be a big hit!

Okay, all of that was essentially true, minus the part about sleeping for weeks and creating the new blog.

I also didn't consider when I started putting this blog together that I would need to fight for air time with my mic. I have a husband who chats with people online at about three million decibels several hours a day, and two kids who scream at slightly fewer decibels, so finding the right time to record my episodes is a challenge. I'm considering waking up earlier every day to record them before work, but I'll see how that goes later.

Long entry short, watch this space.

Welcome to the first Grammar Matters blog. This is something I've been itching to do for some time, so I'm excited beyond words about getting this into motion.

I developed Grammar Matters as a way to help others write more effectively. How's Grammar Matters going to do that? By providing mnemonics that help others remember the grammar that makes writing easy and interesting to read.

Let's say you're working on a report, and you write a sentence that reads, "The Flockharts' business was comprised of eight laundromats." But wait, is it comprised of or composed of? So you hop onto Grammar Matters, type in "comprise vs. compose," and learn that you should be writing either composed of or comprised.

Because this is a personal blog, I only expect to make new posts twice per month--this allows me to research, write, and record new content while still keeping up with a full time job, part time college, and a family of four. If you have specific questions not yet covered in Grammar Matters, you may e-mail me at grammar.ace@gmail.com.