May 31 is Speak in Complete Sentences Day

Today is Speak in Complete Sentences Day. Celebrating this holiday may prove more difficult than you’d think.

The advent of text and email messages has led to an economy of words and a profusion of symbols, acronyms and slang. Sentence structure has been sacrificed on the altar of expediency. Emojis and acronyms are quick, convenient ways to express feeling or intent. Anyone who has hesitated before posting a status update, worried readers might misconstrue its tone, then added a winking face or “lol” can attest to the value of this form of shorthand.

Spell checking programs, if used at all, may lull writers into a false sense of security. Have the grammatical and spelling errors found on forums and blogs trickled up to professional sites? No matter its genesis, carelessness erodes our language skills each day we grow more accustomed and inured to it.

Today, honor your mother tongue by uttering and writing complete sentences. It could become a trend!