The History of National Grammar Day

Happy National Grammar Day! We celebrate our love of language every year on March 4th because it’s both a day and an imperative sentence, as in “March forth (as in ‘go forth’) and spread the love of good grammar.” 

Martha Brockenbrough creates SPOGG in 2004

But did you know we’ve only been celebrating National Grammar Day since 2008, and we have author Martha Brockenbrough to thank for the holiday?

Martha was a writer for Encarta.com and the editor-in-chief of MSN.com, and she also taught high school, and that’s what got her started on her own as a grammar guru in 2004 with the founding of the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar, with the hilarious abbreviation SPOGG, because she was looking for a way to make grammar more fun for her high school students. Membership was free and she took on campaigns such as boycotting Bud Light until they fixed a grammar error on a billboard, and she posted about grammar errors she and her members found in the wild.

President Bush acknowledges National Grammar Day in 2008

Then, in 2008, perhaps not coincidentally a few months before the publication of her book “Things that make us (sic)” spelled “S-I-C” like the editors note, she finagled to get a letter from then President George W. Bush sending best wishes for National Grammar Day, and a holiday created by a woman with a knack for marketing to match her love of grammar was born. 

Martha Brockenbrough puts her mind to fiction

Martha continued to promote National Grammar Day until 2010 when she decided to commit herself to writing fiction, something she has done fantastically well since then. I’m always inspired by her books. I particularly liked the multi-award-winning “Game of Love and Death” that came out in 2015, and she has a new book coming out in November of 2021 called “Into the Bloodred Woods” that has a gorgeous cover and is described as a feminist twist on the Brothers Grimm stories, “Game of Thrones” style. 

National Grammar Day shifts to Grammar Girl in 2010

In 2010, Martha handed National Grammar Day off to me for safe keeping, and I’ve been doing my part to promote it ever since. I’m pleased to say that National Grammar Day been the top story on...

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