Punctuation, Matters

Let's not become sticklers for grammar-school prissiness. 
But sometimes, a misplaced comma can get you killed

Hey, it's only a joke.  But read it; you'll learn something, and you might even laugh.

The following story was reprinted in John Forde's excellent Copywriter's Roundtable Newsletter.  To subscribe, visit his website.

A panda walks into a café and orders a sandwich. He eats it, takes out a gun and fires it into the air, then gets up to leave the restaurant.

"Hold it," says the waiter. "What on earth was that all about?"

"I'm a panda," says the bear. "Look it up." And with that the animal tosses a badly punctuated book about wildlife on the counter and heads for the door.

The waiter flips to the relevant page and reads, "Panda: Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

"Groan if you want," writes John Forde, "but with this, writer Lynne Truss rallies punctuation 'sticklers' everywhere in her new diatribe against comma-and-apostrophe abuse, "'Eats, Shoots & Leaves: A Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.'"

John's whimsical.  And he's a damned good copywriter.  Try out his newsletter.  Really.  (It's free.)

David Garfinkel

Comments

[Daiv Russell, Internet Marketing Strategist]

That's a riot John... thanks for sharing! I've always been rather a stickler for accuracy in communication.

Oddly enough, that trait is one of those things you have to UNlearn (to a degree) when trying to write copy in a way that sounds like you're talking to someone, rather than AT them.

[David Garfinkel]

Very true, Daiv.

It's much more important that your copy sounds like people talk than looks like your high school English teacher would like it to.

But there's no bliss in ignorance, when it comes to copywriting. You need to know where to put commas so they sound like a meaningful pause when you're speaking. And so on.

I like the way my friend Rhea Perry summed it up:

"You have to know the rules to break them!"

David

[Daiv Russell]

Indeed, that is so, David.

Like so many of the arts (dare I call copywriting an art form?) and sciences -- understanding the rules helps you understand the constraints by which your system operates. Then, as a master of that system, you can attempt to push at those boundaries, and defy the rules set up to guide the novice.

But, trying to exceed the speed of light, without understanding the rules of light, velocity, and acceleration could prove to be hazardous. But is it, instead, our feeble acceptance of these "rules", that cause us to fail to truly excel? Do we use the rules as a crutch, justifying our average performance?

Alright, perhaps this is getting to be a bit too existential a tangent on John's extolling the virtues of "proper punctuation"...

But I guess what I'm fighting to say is: Rules can really help people start to learn something new. But, we, as learners, need to realize that the learning is never done, and not to become too comfortable that we now know "the right way" to do something, and rest on our laurels, failing to excel because we religiously follow the rules meant to bring beginners up to speed.