I Got Tagged

Well...technically we got tagged, but I'll fix that at the end of this post.

Peteej tagged 'us' with a grammar meme and gave a link to Songs In Haiku on his blog. Although he tagged Songs in Haiku, I'm going to answer the tag here. Trying to write a song haiku to point out my grammar errors and tag others might make my head explode. By the way, if you haven't been there, check out Pete's blog Me and My GPS Camera Phone. The blog title says it all. I think he has a wonderful blog concept and he does a great job executing it.

The tag is for the "I have grammar issues" meme. Boy is that appropriate! I know Dianne is laughing now. If anyone needs grammar help it's me! Here is an explanation of the meme from Jon's blog.

To play this game, all you must do is explain what your most common writing mistake is. Then, you simply tag five individuals for the meme. Those five people will, in return, tag five more people. Ultimately, readers should see a tapestry of common grammar and spelling mistakes. Therefore, anyone that is feeling ashamed of their errors will feel a bit more confident and secure.

The problem is I'm so bad with grammar I don't realize all the mistakes I make. How can I tackle anything?!? Well, here goes with actually two items that always make me stop and think while writing. The first is the correct placement of punctuation when using quotation marks. When I started formal reviews of my writing at work, I'd always get nailed for this by the reviewers. I've improved. Rather than rehash the rules here, I'll refer you to this site. The second grammar item I struggle with is the correct use of affect and effect. Bottom line is that affect is usually a verb and effect is usually a noun. But it's not always that simple for me. Here is a short explanation and here is a more detailed (i.e. confusing) one.

Since Songs in Haiku is a multi-author blog, it's only fair to tag Dianne and Pat as well. I also think our first guest contributor Erika Jean deserves a tag. Keeping the tags local, I'm also going to tag TheKman and Carla (so she'll post on Blogger for a change).