Rant: Word Nerd Strikes Again

I'm a Word Nerd. See the glasses?

So many times in the last week I've been in a mood to don my Word Nerd suit and rant about poor grammar in several items that I've read of late. Chalk it up to Real Life drama spoiling my normally placid demeanor (Ha!) if you want or just increasing ineptness among people paid to write for a living. At least I'm not as bad as my brother, the former teacher, who actively corrects and "grades" news articles then sends them back to the editors. CC also sends interesting Web clippings about grammar my way, like a New York Times FAQ on Style just this morning. For anyone that has ever complained about the way I sometimes start a sentence with And, particularly a new paragraph, scroll down a bit in that piece and find something else to complain about. I am not a perfect writer. Sometimes I write "in character" or strive to be extra colloquial, but I always try my best to write well. I wish that more writers would keep at their grammar education by reading items like that FAQ from the Times because better writing is infectious. Those who read write well. Those who read better writing will themselves write better.

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Blogger Tip: Use an external grammar checker if you don't write in a word processor first. Try spellchecker.net, a free Web-based application that doesn't auto-correct, but instead flags potential issues then suggests options.