Minnesota Public Radio announces its new online sensation, Grammar Grater™, a weekly podcast about English words, grammar and usage for the Information age.

Because we live in a time of e-mail, blogs, instant messaging, even online product reviews, everybody's a writer. And with the global nature of communication, there's not a single style guide everyone uses. Each episode takes linguistic bugbears and puts them through the Grammar Grater.

Written and hosted by Luke Taylor, Grammar Grater takes a traditionally stodgy subject and transforms it through the magic of radio. The podcast features three- to five-minute episodes with topics ranging from word usage to punctuation to spelling. A written episode format accompanies an audio feature complete with sound effects, wry humor and dramatizations from the Grammatis Personae Players.

"With Grammar Grater, we acknowledge that language is constantly evolving," said Taylor. "The goal is to activate discussion, not necessarily to be heavy-handed. We as staff have healthy debates on grammar all the time and find that there isn't necessarily a single correct answer for all the rules in the English language, particularly as we look beyond borders and consider how the world is getting smaller."

Indeed, the Grammar Grater Web site links to a discussion group on Gather.com, http://grammargrater.gather.com, which enables listeners a chance to weigh in and suggest topics for future episodes.

Grammar Grater has seen swift success, going from 76 downloads in July to more than 65,500 during the month of August. "With or Up?"—its inaugural episode, which examines the difference between "chatting with" and "chatting up"—has so far had more than 31,000 downloads. Another episode, "Walking the Line," employed the use of slide whistles and other sound effects to provide an audio representation of hyphens and dashes in a sentence.

Reviews of the podcast are appearing on blogs around the globe, most particularly as it finds its way into the hands of English teachers and professors looking to energize their students on an age-old subject.

"We are thrilled that Grammar Grater has caught fire so rapidly," said John Pearson, executive producer. "It's the perfect intersection of utility, creativity and portability with results that are fun and educational."

Users can listen to, download or subscribe to the Grammar Grater podcast for free by visiting www.mpr.org and clicking on the Programs menu. Episodes are also available via Apple's iTunes.

Minnesota Public Radio® operates a 37-station radio network serving virtually all of Minnesota and parts of surrounding states and produces programming for radio, Internet and face-to-face audiences. Programs produced by Minnesota Public Radio, operating as American Public Media,™ reach 14.6 million listeners nationwide each week. Of those, more than 800,000 listen regionally, in Minnesota and surrounding states. A complete list of stations, programs and additional services can be obtained at www.mpr.org and www.americanpublicmedia.org.

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Source: Data are copyright Arbitron, Inc., Nationwide and PSA data. Arbitron data are estimates only. Spring 2006/Fall 2006 average