When Mignon Fogarty had the idea to start podcasting about common grammar mistakes, the freelance science writer mostly wanted to try it as a hobby. But three years, two books and an Oprah appearance later, Fogarty is more popularly known as Grammar Girl and tours the country giving talks about her podcast, “Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing,” and her journey from freelance writer to chic grammar celebrity.

Fogarty graduated with a bachelor of arts in literature from the University of Washington before getting a master’s degree in biology from Stanford University.

She has always had a passion for writing, but it wasn’t until she was a freelance technical science writer that she began to have a passion for teaching grammar, and in 2006 she launched the podcast.

“It was when I was writing and editing technical documents that I started to realize that I saw the same errors over and over again,” Fogarty said. “So that’s when I got the idea of starting the Grammar Girl podcast. I thought that, maybe, I could tell people that I saw the same errors over and over and that I could put out little tips for people and it would help people and be fun for me to do as a hobby.”

She said she decided to produce a podcast because of the rising popularity of the medium, and she wanted to try her hand at the new form of communication.

Although she originally planned to do the podcast as a hobby to complement her writing, Fogarty said that Grammar Girl took off more quickly than she could have ever imagined.

“It was fast. It was very fast. I tried to keep up with my writing, but I realized that I couldn’t do both quickly,” Fogarty said. “I signed my book deal in late January of 2007 and that’s when it really became my full-time job.”

In the three years since she started the podcast, Quick and Dirty Tips has had almost 200 episodes. Each episode is about five minutes long and focuses on one specific grammar rule or style. The script is published in a blog as well, and Fogarty sends out daily e-mail grammar tips.

Fogarty has been featured in newspapers such as The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, along with being featured on CNN and Oprah.

When Fogarty first started, she took her inspiration from her technical writing and aimed her podcast at working adults, but the podcast grew in scope to accommodate its expanding audience.

“When I started I was aiming mostly for working people and I sort of just wrote for myself in the style that I would like to read, and it’s been amazing because now I hear that middle school teachers use it, high school teachers and college teachers use it,” Fogarty said. “I’ve been shocked by the range of ages of people that listen to and enjoy the work.”

One reason for Fogarty’s diverse success is the attitude that she has when approaching grammar rules and grammar instruction.

“The goal is to be fun and friendly because so many people are nervous about writing. They think there are all these rules and they don’t know what they are and they fear that they are doing it wrong,” Fogarty said. “And most people criticize and there aren’t a lot of people out there who want to help people write better.”

One of the places that this has become most common is in new media, such as blogs and social media. With the ease of commenting and user-generated content, people are often alienated by others for their grammar mistakes.

“Often, when you see anything about grammar it’s in the form of someone correcting someone else in a forum and calling them an idiot or something like that. So people are understandably anxious about their writing,” Fogarty said. “And my goal is always to take away that anxiety and make it something fun and easy.”

After the success of the podcast, Fogarty hit even more success when her first book, named after the podcast, made The New York Times’ best sellers list. The book focuses on the questions that Fogarty saw most during the first year of the Grammar Girl podcast. Each section fully explains the reasons for the grammar rules with detailed examples and various approaches to each rule and style choice.

Her second book, “The Grammar Devotional,” serves less as a reference book and more as a daily calendar of short and sweet tips, including quizzes, puzzles and memory tricks to improve writing on a daily basis.

Fogarty will be speaking at the Science and Engineering Library tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. at an event sponsored by the Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing. Her talks usually consist of a short biographical lecture and then a Q-and-A session with audience members about their specific grammar questions.

The Grammar Girl blog can be found at http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/.