- Mark Allen
Haiku submitted:/one hundred seventy-six./What a treasure trove.
Below are 176 entries into the National Grammar Day Tweeted Haiku Contest. Look through them and you will see how difficult it was to pick a few winners. If you think the judges erred, please use the comments section to call out your favorites.
Thanks to all who entered.
@veloquence: Indecisive two / Typo or short ellipses? / Worst grammar pet peeve.
@scottdhoople: an insight in sight / two prophets see prophecies / to profits seize
@danielgerling: “Lia: wire papa.”// No em dash? Oh, sad me! On// a paper I wail.
@DailyEngHelp: A living language / Ever changing lexicon / English is global.
@LindaDawnStone: “Alot” for “a lot”/ “Loosing” for “losing”: are these/ Just cause to un-friend?
@db_stewart: Each comma, is a/punctuation teardrop, thus,/my thoughts, are wrinkled.
@newyearsbabie: It pains me to read, after I submit my post, my grammar errors.
@bornponrivulets: on her breast I lay, never come the waking light, lie content to breathe.
@LindaDawnStone: You don’t understand/ Your grammatical errors/ Cause physical pain.
@PurplePenning: You could NOT care less. / “Just semantics” makes no sense. / Meaning is meaning.
@bornponrivulets: look on falling snow, roof knows not where ground begins, all is forgotten.
@kerry_mckinnon: He wrote with tamed tongue /His participles well-placed/ Dangle they did not.
@RobinL130: Between you and I / Theirs to many people who / Fuss about grammer.
@db_stewart: To the park I walk / my unruly syntax so / it can wag the dog.
@CCCopyEditor: I love that my kids / can use the subjunctive mood. / They’re future word nerds.
@CCCopyEditor: Laurie Anderson / says language is a virus. / Then I’m infected.
@PurplePenning: With bowl, spoon, and milk, / I like to add a little / serial comma.
@PFSPublishing: Exclamation mark / punctuate thoughts of horror, / “Conversate, a word!”
@decalino: Language changes; rules / evolve. Accept singular / “they”, gender unknown.
@PurplePenning: Editing, writing, / speaking, thinking, daydreaming / — grammar informs all.
@K_to_the_ukla: Your superscription/undulating curvaceous/ I love you tilde/
@WendyMackall: Editors rejoice//when all subjects and all verbs//can at last agree
@aubergineword: Period space space./That’s the way we learned to write./You only need one.
@p0sterchild65: Large words can be fun/But Proper context is key/When writing essays
@TheCinemaGirl: Language flows freely; | diagramming arrests me | with a harsh sentence.
@ProofingSandy: There is much joy as / they’re boldly marching forth with / their linguistic love.
@aubergineword: The parenthesis/Held a secret, whispered truth./Unclosed, it told all.
@EricaHamling: Learn the difference, between there, theirs and they are, it is grammar day
@PurplePenning: Intransitive hope, / hoping without an object, / cannot live. ~Coleridge
@micheledagle: CMS, AP / MLA, CSE, too / There’s a style for all.
@cmb63: A wealth of commas, A run on sentence for you, Where’s the period?
@K_to_the_ukla: The semicolon/ first used in fifteen ninety-one/ you shall top my list/
@kmrq32: Man, so many rules/Than or then, their is not they’re/Grammar is endless
@lightningvsbug: No one excuses / poor adding, subtracting, but / bad grammar passes?
@crgn: If you have written / too many words for the space / we will be careful
@RMTranslations: I have a master’s / But I received an M.A. / Do I get an A?
@judyhoracek: Words in their right place/ all meanings clear, tense as a /verb, not a feeling
@spamless: A grammar flasher: / I run naked through the crowd, / dangling compulsion.
@bryanthuber: independent clause/ semi-colon goes right here/ independent clause
@judyhoracek: Oh grammar, grammar/ grammar day – you give us all/ a great game to play
@p0sterchild65: Large words can be fun/But Proper context is key/When writing essays
@RMTranslations: Stretched out on the bed / She told a whopping falsehood / The lying liar
@johnemcintyre: Treat your editor / like an old friend you count on / to tell you the truth.
@shugus: Poems can break rules/But grammar is best when true/Use spell-check, at least.
@K_to_the_ukla: Haiku contest tweet/ for National Grammar Day/ punctuation? Yes.
@danielgerling: “We do grammar–Go!”// All its sides reversed is still// “O grammar god; ew!”
@RMTranslations: The students wondered / Should they have used past perfect? / Stupid verb tenses
@shugus: Do you speak English/or something disguised as it?/Grammar matters, kids.
@mikeatonjr: In posterity / All will split infinitives / It will still be wrong
@PurplePenning: Ideas carved in words / pine for full understanding, / ache for form — grammar.
@PurplePenning: Haiku need not toss / grammar’s sense-making beauty. / Neither must text-speak.
@CCCopyEditor: Conjunction junction / What’s your function? TV shorts / Taught me my grammar.
@CCCopyEditor: I must surrender / To the High Gods of Grammar / Even when online.
@CCCopyEditor: An editor’s angst: / Change the author’s words, or not? / Only if broken.
@gerrrib: Monkeys, HULK and Girl / give usage commentary / by tweeting grammar
@CCCopyEditor: Awesome adjectives / The perfect preposition / Loving the language.
@WilliamReagan: Possessive ends “S”\ apostrophe looks nervous \ unsure where to stand
@christinatsuei: i.e. or e.g.?/”that is” or “for example”!/some latin debunked
@ReadingLisa: You think that you snuck//But I can see that you sneaked//And that is a bust
@larry_kunz: No further ado: / Knowing when to use “farther” / takes talent and skill.
@word_czar: Apostrophe? No. // Possessive, not contraction. // Its ain’t it’s, is it?
@johnemcintyre: A world disordered / needs a means to set things right: / the Oxford comma.
@arikaokrent: Each writer who writes/ he/she should stand up and fight/ for singular “they.”
@word_czar: False series vex me; // dangling modifiers, too. // Where is my red pen?
@StanCarey: My word, your syntax / stirs my imperative mood: / Let’s coordinate.
@DailyEngHelp: Their, There, They’re, Your You’re / It’s good grammar at its best / Use them correctly.
@word_czar: I, he, they, and who // lack an “m”; one letter ties // me, him, them, and whom.
@4ndyman: If you’ve much to say, / A well-placed semicolon / Can save your big but.
@gerrrib: Grammarian split / descriptive or prescriptive / can’t we get along
@CCCopyEditor: Is grammar static? / Verily I say to thee: Nay! / Language is living.
@CCCopyEditor: multifarious / grammar forms proliferate / on teh interwebz
@arikaokrent: What fun would it be?/The irregardlesslessness/of a perfect world?
@CCCopyEditor: language is useful / for much much more than talking / about tiger blood
@arikaokrent: Serial commas/tiny poison-tipped curved darts/in the style-guide wars
@FroshEngpd2: It affected me, In such an effective way, I was infected
@FroshEngpd2: FANBOYS are useful, For And Nor But Or Yet So, They can join subjects