Punctuation
Do you cringe when you see misplaced commas, semi-colons and quotation marks? How about if you spot excessive ellipses and adrift apostrophes? Have you ever had a heated discussion about the serial comma, or better yet, debated whether that extra comma should instead be called an Oxford comma? Punctuation pundits pose some odd questions, but punctuation itself shouldn’t raise questions. Punctuation should clarify the meaning of a sentence. Years ago, a legal tiff between Rogers and Bell Aliant quantified the high stakes of punctuation gone awry: a million dollars . The battle stemmed from a single comma in a contract agreement. Usually the stakes aren’t quite as high. For example, a colleague once invited me to join everyone in a meeting room to enjoy Halloween candy. His invitation, a sticky note on my computer display, read: Join us in the boardroom. Lets eat, Candy! Eeek! I hope nobody has ever nicknamed me Candy. Back then, I didn’t work with anyone by that name ...