September 24 is National Punctuation Day. The website
celebrating this day describes itself as…
“A celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotation
marks, and other proper uses of periods, semicolons, and the ever- mysterious
ellipsis.”
As a favorable reflection upon Mary Ellen Bajdek, sophomore English
teacher at Concord
High school
I thoroughly enjoyed her class. Diagramming sentences and
identifying the various phrase types and uses was for me a consuming hobby.
I remember having an argument in class with her one day over
a paragraph we were reading. I insisted that the phrase we were focusing on was
a participial phrase; she argued that it was an adverbial phrase. I maintain
that my argument was correct. But, given that the argument was taking too much
class time, I acquiesced to her standing and moved on.
I very much was entertained by that argument.
Mrs. Bajdek, wherever you are, thank you for making grammar
fun for me.
During high school and college, I was very good at grammar
and spelling. If you pay attention to my blog postings and Facebook postings,
you will notice I have become sloppy.
Always feel free to correct me when you see an error. But do
so as Mrs. Bajdek always did…with a confident and sincere smile on your face!
You can find out more about National Punctuation Day at:
