London may be a big city, but although I don't venture up as often as I used to, it is surprising how often I bump into people I know. A day or two ago I spotted our correspondent, Ed C of Cambridge, and the HM partaking of a drop of "marbler's delight" in a wine-bar not far from Covent Garden. Naturally, I joined them, and before long the conversation had turned to...punctuation.
Ed, dab hand at letter writing as he is, is an efficient and enthusiastic exponent of the art. The HM and I do our best, but we do not always see comma-to-comma. I believe that the goal of punctuation is to improve 'readability'; which, incidentally, is not at all the same thing as legibility. The HM sometimes seems to think that the goal is to pack in as many commas as possible.
Years ago I came across a little brain-teaser on this subject which I am delighted to pass on: punctuate the following words to create a meaningful sentence: Tom where John had had had had had had had had had had had the examiner's approval. Any reader who can manage it, let me know and you will be entered into a prize draw (to be held on the date of our year end, 31 October).
If anybody can beat the above example for a sentence with the same word repeated consecutively (ie I am looking for runs of 12 or more) let me know, and a small reward might be winging its way.
That's it. Full stop.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
As a co-worker of the HM's 9 to 5 job, I think it is necessary to chip in here. Often times, the HM and I are subject to the "slings and arrows of outragous" punctuation as part of our letter writing campaign.
For example, one of my favourite punctuation corrective comments is:
para 8 full stop after "assets" in 2nd line. New sentence needs to start with "However,". In 6th line "separate" s/be "separately"
Better still is when I recieve country specific spelling editorials.
para 9 in this country it's "programme" not "program" (though not I fear for much longer).
Alas, I empathise with the HM's potential overuse of commas to provide meaning and context.
Of note, one of the most delightful books I have read on the subject is "eats shoots & leaves". The title of which can have a very different meaning when commas are included.
Well done on the blog.
Keep up the good work.
LM
Post a Comment