Honorary president: Judith Butcher Honorary vice-president: David Crystal OBE
Press release: 19 February 2004
Do you know when to use a comma or are you in a coma? Members of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP) know that punctuation matters – they're the punctuation professionals. You can rely on them to spot the difference between 'Dicks in tray' and 'Dick's in-tray', and to notice when a comma is wrongly inserted ('What is this thing called, love?') or an apostrophe is misplaced ('Major Wedding Dresse's Exhibition').
If you think good punctuation no longer matters, a news cutting from a couple of years ago illustrates the potential cost of a misplaced comma. The headline was: 'LOCKHEED LOSES $70M OVER ROGUE COMMA.' In a sales contract for a Hercules aircraft, the comma in an equation adjusting the sales price for inflation ended up in the wrong position, and the customer demanded that Lockheed stick to the contract – the error cost the company $70 million.
Eats, Shoots and Leaves – The zero tolerance approach to punctuation by Lynne Truss (Profile Books), has been at the top of the non-fiction bestseller list since it was published in November 2003. Its runaway success has stimulated a new-found interest in punctuation and highlighted the need for it to be faultless. But why should anyone want to read a book on punctuation? There are several reasons:
- Many people who were not taught punctuation and grammar at school are aware they are lacking something.
- Emails without punctuation often don't make sense, and grammatical errors in headlines and on websites stand out – and people are now beginning to realise that this matters.
- Some people just love punctuation and get upset about its misuse.
Whatever the reason, Lynne Truss's non-prescriptive approach, in a book that is an easy (and amusing) read, has raised public awareness of the potential for humour if correct punctuation isn't taken seriously.
If you want to avoid being the butt of the next punctuation joke, employ an SfEP member. Visit our website (www.sfep.org.uk) to access our Directory listing the services of over 450 members, all of whom can be relied on to ensure that your publications, press releases and prose are properly punctuated.
We also offer training courses, which your staff can attend, to help brush up grammar and proofreading skills.
For further information, contact our PR director, Sara Hulse (tel: 01623 823 002; ).
