Word nerds unite!
That was the thrust of Ellen Jovin’s keynote speech today at the 2026 NCRA Conference & Expo in Bellevue, Wash., and she found a very receptive audience in a room full of court reporters, captioners, and legal videographers.
Donning a “word nerd” T-shirt, Jovin, the founder of the Grammar Table, author of the bestseller “Rebel with a Clause,” and star of Brandt Johnson’s documentary of the same name, peppered the audience throughout her speech with examples of sometimes controversial grammar cases.
She apprised attendees of how she got her start in word nerd-ism and how she eventually founded the Grammar Table. One day in 2018, Jovin set up a folding table and chair on a Manhattan sidewalk to field grammar questions from everyday New Yorkers. According to Jovin, people started stopping by instantly to share their stories and ask their questions. Before long she had developed a devoted social media following. Then, as her website puts it, “what happened next is the stuff of grammar legend.”
Together with her filmmaker husband, Jovin set out to visit all 50 states to take questions from everyday Americans. The film features people from all walks of life who visit Jovin’s table to settle disputes, talk about their “grammar insecurities,” and find common bonds with our neighbors so we can all get along.
Jovin shared how she had always wanted to be a writer and she moved from her native California to New York City where she worked as a freelance reporter. That is where she says she experienced some of what court reporters do, in particular transcribing.
As a longtime fan of theAssociation (her childhood friend was in attendance and is also a court reporter), Jovin said she has wanted to speak before NCRA for years. She showed slides of where she has taken the Grammar Table. Jovin says she had always thought of Grammar Table as something fun to do to blow off steam and get out from behind her computer. However, the success of the table prompted her to take it on the road. And, when the world shut down during the COVID pandemic, she pitched the book “Rebel with a Clause” to Harper Collins, and it became a bestseller.
Throughout her speech, Jovin focused on the evolution of language, and she highlighted different examples of questions she has fielded in her travels on the road with Grammar Table. One particularly memorable part of the speech was the dictation section, where differing opinions on the correct answer to this example were voiced around the room: “James’ brother stole her hat. James’s brother stole her hat.”
The Oxford comma, a favorite subject of hers, was also discussed at length. Jovin says the topic of the Oxford comma is one of the most-asked questions she gets. Members certainly had opinions of it, judging from the way the room lit up when Jovin broached it.
Ultimately, Jovin was able to meet our 2026 Conference & Expo attendees right where they are most comfortable: debating the intricacies of language in order to preserve the integrity of the record.
Jovin closed by inviting the audience to visit the Grammar Table outside the hall and ask their own questions. She and her husband will also attend Friday Movie Night at the Conference for a special screening of “Rebel with a Clause.”
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