Dictionaries and grammar books were key parts of the process of standardising spellings, meanings and the manner of expression of English.
Read this emagazine article (sign in first) and make notes on dates and examples of dictionary uses nd conventions, especially Johnson's little joke about oats (what is he implying?). https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/e-magazine/articles/14693
Then research Robert Lowth's Grammar and other grammar texts of the 1700s (and today e.g. Eats, Shoots and Leaves) - read enough to get an idea of who these men were and why they had the authority to decide. Ensure you know what the rules were drawn from and some examples of rules that were disagreed over. Then research what is changing now (some starters: 'one', the possessive apostrophe, a gender-neutral pronoun - what else?).
Make notes on your blog of key ideas and examples relating to spelling and grammar standardisation and changes - as always, cite your sources. this content can be brought into the discussion of the older text, your essays on language change, opinions/attitudes about language and any opinion piece on language could probably use it!
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