I've been listening to your podcast for a month now and I love it! My mom is an English teacher (more lit than grammar) and I send her your "lessons" regularly. It's always fun to listen to, and your brevity is both refreshing and effective. Amazing job!

Love the podcast, love the theme music... it let's me know that another Grammar Girl is about to start. Please don't change it.

"All I have is announcements today." Shouldn't that be "All I have are announcements today"? Teresa

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! fOR TEACHING PRESENT, PAST, AND PAT PARTICIPLES. IF I HEAR 'HAVE DID', OR 'HAVE WENT' ONE MORE TIME, I MIGHT CONSIDER SOME SORT OF VIOLENCE! Ha! Ha! I HOPE I USED THE CORRECT QUOTE MARKS - IF NOT, THEN I'M SORRY. THANK YOU AGAIN GRAMMAR GIRL, YOU ARE A BLESSING!!

Thank you for all of the wonderful information in your podcast. I wanted to weigh in with my comments on the video podcast debate. I listen to my podcasts primarily in my car during my commute. I use an FM transmitter and video podcasts suck the life right out of my iPod battery. If you make the decision to go the video route, please continue to provide an audio only method as well. Also, please keep the content identical. I have found more than one audio vs. video podcast from the same provider that has different information on the same topic. I always feel like I'm missing something if I don't explore both, even though the majority of the information is redundant. Keep up the good work!

I like the intro music... my vote is to keep it.

I like the music. I'd vote for it, but I can't find the poll on your site. So, please add a vote in favor for me.

I can't belive people actually complained about the song. The content is the important part, and it is very helpful. The intro plays for what 5 seconds. Tell everyone to get over it. Keep doing what your doing.

The song is fine.

Girl,

I love your podcast. It's easy to understand why you are ranked so highly in a number of 'Top' and 'Favourite' podcast lists for 2006. The length of each episode is just right, the content is fantastic, and the music you use is perfect.

I was a little sad to hear that you're thinking about changing the audio podcast to a videocast. I understand that you are experimenting with embedded images and slide shows, but I worry that too much video content may diminish the quality of the audio portion of the seminars for those of us with mere iPod Nanos. Please don't let the allure of adding bells and whistles take your excellent podcast too far off-course.

I look forward to listening to new episodes in the car on the way to work and, if I absolutely have to, getting use to keeping one eye on the road and the other on a 2 inch screen! (Just kidding!)

Keep up the great work! Kelly

First, I must say that I really appreciate your podcast. As a high school student, I see a lot of need for my more grammar education and awareness. It's great that you're trying to make the world more grammatically correct! : ) I do not own a video iPod and I am unable to play video podcasts on my computer. I know others have commented on this topic, but I just wanted to add support for the audio podcasts. Still images would be a better addition for quick reference and help than a video version. Thank you!

GG, thanks for the show. The music is fine for me. It does not particularly fit my taste, but it does tell me that Grammar Girl is coming up. For the commenter who said that the music wears on you after a bit, I think you have to realize that these episodes don't come out every 2 hours. If you hear it enough to be tired of it, that probably indicates you are catching up on old episodes. When you only get a few shows of GG each week, it is not so bad.

I don't have any idea as to what you would do for a video podcast. You say you would still have an audio podcast too. Does this mean you will use the audio from the video podcast? If so, then either the video version is unnecessary or the audio version will suffer.

What will the still images add to the audio podcast? If it is just example sentences, then use the lyrics/shownotes field in the MP3 to give us the sentences.

If there is something that has to be visual, then you are cutting off a large portion of the audience who either do not have screens on their devices, or do not have video capability. Or, the group in which I fit, have video capabilities, but listen to audio podcasts because I don't want to look at pictures.

If you start depending on pictures or video, I think you will lose a good number of subscribers.

I love the show just the way it is.

Hi, having pictures is a good idea. I'm not so positive about having videocast, i'm listening on iPod Nano, which doesn't have video playback availability. I can't think about the reason for having videos,I think that everything what you will be showing there is possible to show in just pictures.

I think that you -and your choice of music- make grammar hip & helpful. Thank you, Grammar Girl!

The music is fine, but people want it to be changed, that's okay too. Also, I'm interested in finding out how you got those stats you posted about computer and mp3 player listeners, because I listen on both; sometimes it gets to where I sync it into my iPod, but sometimes I don't. I'm not saying that they're necessarily wrong, I'm just asking. I also think that it's not necessary to make a video podcast. I don't exactly see what it would add to the podcast, because it's about writing. I think the idea for the images is very interesting, but the video really seems unnecessary if you're going to do images. But I think that whatever you want to do with the podcast is fine, since it is yours anyway. I know that it's for the listeners and not for you, but you're our guide (essentially), so you can lead us wherever! Thanks for the podcast, though. Even if you go through some changes I think it will still be worth listening to.

The music is fine. Its/It's (?, when is the next show?!) not amazing but not horrible either. And about the visuals... I'm wondering how those would show up on a PSP which uses RSS, if anyone knows... Turning the show into a vodcast seems like an unnessary luxury. Don't fix what ain't broke!

Thanks! The way people listen to the show is pretty evenly split: 46% listen on a computer and 53% listen on an mp3 player.

Happy Holidays!

Images and Video podcasts sound nice, but if I had to choose between more episodes or images, I'd choose more episodes over visuals. Of course, if video helps get you a sponsor, hey, more power to you! :-)

I listen most often in the car, from an iPod, and that's part of why the images don't really add to my experience. I wonder where most people listen to your podcast; have you already done a poll on that?

Happy New Year!

i agree with michael. maybe it's something about being from delaware, but i feel like though the music is kind of an earworm, you want that in a signature piece.

i also agree with michael about the video podcast. unless you have a team of animators creating little squigglys (is it squigglies in the plural?) and aardvarks to "illustrate" your points (heh...), sitting through just little flashcards or you reading your transcript isn't that thrilling. part of audio is the ability to create images in your own head. while it is useful to see the specific grammar examples, your explainations are so good that keeping it as a primarily audio podcast is a definite plus.

thanks a zillion! kitty

Thanks to everyone for your thoughtful comments! Keep them coming!

One reason I haven't added video yet is because I want to make sure people who don't have video iPods can still easily get the show. The software I'm using to embed images right now promises that people without video will be able to listen as usual. (It seems to be degrading the sound quality a little bit though, so I'm not completely satisfied with how it's turning out.)

I have to investigate how things will work if I do full video, but I think I may have to create two separate shows: one video and one audio.

Don't worry! I don't have any intention of abandoning the audio people.

Grammar Girl, I hope that if you make a leap to video podcasts that they will still be available as plain audio files. I often burn the podcasts to CDs and listen to them in the car. I would hate to lose this option. It seems like listeners are constantly asking you to do more work. I would be happy with just the podcast, even without detailed transcripts, images, video, new music, etc. Keep it simple so we don't burn you out! As always, thanks GG.

Not only is the music great, but the overall structure of your pod-cast (Hm. Is the “pod” in “pod-cast” capitalized? Is “pod” the short form of “I-pod,” which is a brand name and therefore a proper noun? Or, is “pod” a generic term for any MP-3 player? My apologies for that side-bar. Sometimes writing is not linear.) is very well-formed.

You have very clear audio signatures: a. the opening musical scratch, b. the underlying drum/organ music for the first minute or so, c. the return to the background organ/drum music for the last 45 seconds, and d. the closing musical measures, which are akin to the “dad um” on the TV show “Law and Order.”

The rest of the show is well structured, too. You have a clear presentation of the topic at hand and do so using examples from listeners. This makes for a great connection between you and the listeners. You use the middle part of your cast to provide the advice, again, with sufficient and varied examples, and sometimes a handy pneumonic. The last quarter of your casts often have two parts: resources to further explore the topic you have covered and announcements. Ending with the announcements is great. Again, it creates a clear link between you and the listeners. This link is a distinction you have from the other Q&D hosts, particularly Mr. Manners. While his work is both fun and informative, his presentations are far more formal and distant. (Not that distant is bad; given the topic, I think it is actually the right tone for his pod-casts.) Your casts, however, always bring forth both sound, clear, useful information and a personal connection with the audience.

One last comment: The plans for the image-enhanced pod-cast sound great. It will be useful to have images of the examples you refer to during the pod-casts. However, I argue not to change this pod-cast to a video pod-cast. One of my great pleasures is hearing your show and thinking about the sounds of words, the cadences of phrases and sentences, and the rhythms of what we write. Moving images often shift our mind from how things sound to how they look and have the effect of diminishing the words. Because your pod-cast is about grammar and writing, I suggest that you stay within the realm of written and spoken language and allow the beauty of well crafted language to speak for itself.

As always, thanks for a great pod-cast.

Your music is fine as official podcast music, but perhaps you could mix it up some weeks with a song that pertains to the specific podcast. For example, for the podcast titled "He makes me crazy" on singular pronouns, you could have used the song "Crazy" by Gnarles Barkley or one of the many other songs in the world of music that uses the word crazy.

I'm a big fan of Grammar Girl and don't like the music. Your plans for adding video sound exciting. Will those of us without video still be able to download you on iTunes for use on an iPod nano?

It's ok but it starts to get annoying over and over. Guess I have never been a big fan of the "scratch record".

Hey Grammar Girl, I love the music. It's quirky, upbeat, and fun. My 8th grade students dig it also. However, the commercials are not engaging. Yes, I donate to your site.

I think the music is good. Please don't change it. I also wanted to know where I can find this tune. Is it just a sound bit or is it an actual song?

I like the music. I don't see any need to change it. (Unless of course you find something that is even better.)