The rise of mobile phone and digital technology means traditional school lessons in the English language are effectively pointless, a leading academic has claimed.

Middle-class problems: Apostrophes

36-year-old Chris Sevier blames the company for his wife leaving him

Difficult weekend?

The first major study into online bullying, conducted by academics at Lancaster University has identified seven "trolling" behaviours that internet users should be wary of.

June's quarterly update to the Oxford English Dictionary includes a raft of technology-inspired words

Various blockheads have detected some sort of right-wing conspiracy behind the publication of Gwynne's Grammar, a short introduction to the art of good writing which I have helped to publish. In fact, my plan was to continue the radical tradition of William Cobbett and George Orwell. Both encouraged the British to study our own language in order to sharpen our minds and detect humbug. In his introduction to his own very funny guide to grammar, published in 1817, the fantastically bloody-minded radical Cobbett wrote that he wanted to "lay the solid foundation of literary knowledge amongst the labouring classes of the community; to give practical effect to the natural genius found in the soldier, the sailor, the apprentice and the ploughboy".

Ten years ago, Lynne Truss published Eats, Shoots and Leaves: the Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. It was doctrinaire about commas, semi-colons, dashes and other diacritical marks, and it seemed to signal the end of the line for the Grocer’s Apostrophe – you know the kind of thing: “Apple’s and Pear’s 75p a pound!”, “King Edwards Potatoe’s £1.99 a kilo”.

The root of David Walliams’ ‘But I’m a Lady’ sketch has been revealed as the moment he stood on stage aged 11 dressed up as Queen and “made people laugh for the first time”.

If you send a text that is grammatically correct, it shows that you have taken care over your message - you have treated the recipient with due respect

Simon Horobin, a professor of English at Magdalen College, Oxford, suggested that the spellings of 'they’re', 'their' and 'there' could be standardised

One of the country's leading headteachers is to accuse Education Secretary Michael Gove of “chickening out” of bringing back a return to grammar schools.

Keep a hand to your eraser - grammar wars are brewing. The new curriculum set out by Education Secretary Michael Gove was criticised in March by academics who called it an "endless list of spellings, facts, and rules"; in the last few days, more angst has flared up - particularly over the issue of spelling and grammar or 'Spag' tests. 

You've probably seen the Charles Ramsey video by now (if not, hey, it's right above). In the 3 minute clip, the neighbour of Ariel Castro, the man today charged with kidnapping and raping three women, describes how he heard one of the victims shout from next door and went over to help. It's become a viral hit - with almost ten million views on combined YouTube sources - but what's the root of its success?