09/03/2026
Dear ELA educators and my 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Fulcher.
By no means am I smearing the good name of the English Language, nor am I disparaging your chosen career path. But, let's face it, sometimes we want to start a sentence with but (as demonstrated here) because then people are like, "ooh! they're edgy writers!" And what's with all those exceptions to rules? I mean, "i" before "e" except after "c"? Yeah, right; until you want to use the word "heir" or "seize", and historians need those words to write about literally every European War ever. And don't even get me started on "there", "their", and "they're", 'cause if it weren't for Grammarly I'd just stop using those altogether.
We historians don't need grammar rules. We haven't got time for "the man" to be telling us how to write. I mean, we gotta explain the importance of events that happened decades before we were alive, to people we never met! The Civil War isn't going to debate itself in a 500-page book! (Wait, is it "its self" or "itself"?) All I'm saying is, if the world has to decide between putting its energy into studying the Vikings or figuring out why the plural for "moose" is still "moose", we both know what people will choose. No hard feelings.
Sincerely,
Historians
