I love it when respected national publications like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times run stories about grammar. They, the stories, make my geeky little heart soar. Because (yes, I know I’m not supposed to begin a sentence with ‘because’), I think I might be among the last generation to have learned to diagram sentences in high school. Seriously. Thank you Mrs. Wankier (RIP). She was my 11th grade English teacher. She was marvelous. I loved every minute of her challenging class. Especially the diagramming section.
When the link to the WSJ article appeared on a friend’s Facebook page, he remarked that it was an amazing time when someone could make a living based on the ability to place a comma correctly. And yet.
So thank you Mrs. Wankier. Thank you, Mr. Harvey. Thank you Mr. Olbin. These teachers brought out the writer in me, and a geeky love of all things grammar. And now (yes, one shouldn’t start a sentence with ‘and’), I know which grammar rules are hard and fast, and which should be broken.
