Grammar Girl here. I'm Minion Fogarty and you can think of me as your friendly guide to

the English language. We talk about writing, history, rules, and other cool stuff.

National Grammar Day is coming up March 4th, so today we're going to answer a general

question I get a lot. How do you improve your grammar?

Guest writer Susan Herman has lots of great suggestions, and then I'll help you understand

why parallelism matters in your writing and how to actually use it.

Lots of people have asked me how they can improve their grammar, and most of them really

mean their writing. Do you want to write more effective work emails or documents? Are

you having to write more for school or work or maybe write a resume? Whatever the reason,

grammar is important, at least informal or professional writing. Good grammar shows

the audience that you care and take the topic you're writing about seriously. It also

increases your credibility, especially if you're trying to connect with or influence

your audience. If people can't understand you, they're less likely to receive your true

message. But remember that communication is the goal, not perfection. It's not just

about making your 10th grade English teacher or the dreaded Facebook grammar police

proud. Think of it more as using standard English or professional writing.

So what is standard English? Well according to Merriam Webster, it's quote, the English

that with respect to spelling, grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary is substantially uniform,

though not devoid of regional differences. That is well established by usage in the formal

and informal speech and writing of the educated. And that's widely recognized as acceptable

wherever English is spoken and understood. Now the key concepts in that rather long

definition are uniform and acceptable. Notice that nowhere does it say proper or correct.

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