The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar

Why not become a member of SPOGG, "The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar"? Membership is free! In fact, if you join, print out the membership card, laminate it, and carry it with you daily, I will give you 100 extra credit points for 4th quarter. Not bad, eh? And remember, you are all charter members of the Cincinnati chapter of the Apostrophe Protection Society. From the SPOGG website:

There are huge problems in this world, and then there are problems that can be solved by everyday people with red pens and a little moxie.

The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar is for pen-toters appalled by wanton displays of Bad English. (And we're not talking about Bad English, the band, although their song "Heaven is a 4 letter word" needs a hyphen.)

SPOGG is for people who crave good, clean English — sentences cast well and punctuated correctly. It's about clarity. And who knows how many of the world's huge problems could be solved if we had a little more of that?

SPOGG is the proud founder of National Grammar Day, which happens every year on March 4.

Visit the SPOGG blog. If you are really cyber-hip, you can also join on Facebook.

The Apostrophe Protection Society

The Apostrophe Protection Society was started in 2001 by John Richards, now its Chairman, with the specific aim of preserving the correct use of this currently much abused punctuation mark in all forms of text written in the English language.

When I inquired into becoming a member of the Apostrophe Protection Society, Chairman Richards informed me there is no "membership" as such; however, he did send along a form letter that he sends out to businesses when he receives a complaint that they've misused or have failed to use an apostrophe appropriately. The good chairman says we may send out this form letter (under your own name, of course) with the APS letterhead.

I'm making the form letter on APS letterhead available in Microsoft Word (.doc):
Click here

N.B. -- Extra Credit Opportunity: If you happen to notice a public sign (say, in a shop window or in front of a restaurant) that misuses the apostrophe -- or simply doesn't include it, send the business the form letter, describing the offense. Copy me on the letter and you'll receive up to 10 points extra credit per letter (with a maximum of 5 letters per quarter).