Give your company a voice
Nothing beats rambling when it comes to hiking through the countryside on a sunny day. But when it comes to your marketing communications, it’s important to be direct.
The apostrophe is the small but vital punctuation mark that makes the difference between knowing your sh*t and knowing you’re sh*t.
Yet, despite their importance, apostrophes are one of the most misunderstood punctuation marks. We’ve all smiled (or groaned) at the apostrophe slip-ups we see daily. Who hasn’t winced at greengrocers’ signs like “Tomatoe’s” and “Apple’s”? Not to mention numerous other abominations such as “Carvery’s”, “Crisp’s” “Tattoo’s” and “Open Sunday’s”. (In fact, greengrocers are such prolific offenders there’s even a name for their mistakes: “the greengrocer’s apostrophe”).
If you struggle with spelling, take comfort in the fact it’s unlikely one of your spelling mistakes will ever be as high profile as this.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) recently printed 46 million new bank notes with a glaring spelling mistake. The word “responsibility” was wrongly spelled “responsibilty” on 46 million newly-minted A$50 bank notes. The notes feature Edith Cowan, Australia’s first female MP. According to BBC News,
If you sometimes confuse phase and faze or their, they’re and there, you’ve used the right word but the wrong spelling.
Words that sound the same but are spelt differently
Admittedly, those of us who struggle with spelling aren’t helped by the vagaries of the English language. It contains many words that sound the same but, confusingly, are spelt differently and also mean completely different things.
Legend has it that exiled in Guernsey during the 1860s and desperate to find out how his new novel Les Miserables was selling, the author Victor Hugo sent a telegram to his publisher bearing a single symbol: “?” His equally frugal publisher replied “!”
Today, the exclamation mark is hardly known for its witty use. In fact, it has the dubious distinction of being the only form of punctuation that’s actively discouraged by newspapers.
The red Mini pictured above is a little, used car – not necessarily a little-used car.
How well do you use hyphens? They look like a shorter, stubbier relative of the dash but perform a very different function.
In a nutshell, hyphens are commonly used to glue words together when no single word exists. Such as ‘on-site’, ‘stress-free’ or ‘mother-in-law’.
You can also use hyphens to form compound words with different meanings.
The colon – we’re talking the punctuation mark rather than the large intestine here – is often overlooked. Indeed, many never use it. But they’re missing a trick. Just as it’s possible to cook without salt or go through life without eating chocolate, a well-placed colon can pep up your writing.
Although under threat from the more popular dash, colons have many uses. For example to:
If your main use for semicolons is to create a winky face*, you’re not alone. It is perhaps the most underused of punctuation marks and this may well be due to confusion over its purpose and correct use. The simplest way of describing what a semicolon does is to signify a long pause. How long? The best answer I can give is somewhere between a comma and a full stop.
There are no precise guidelines and that is probably one of the reasons why they’re falling into disuse.
As this image humorously demonstrates, the comma is a vital punctuation mark. They can greatly improve our understanding of a sentence, particularly a longer one. If you’re confused about how to use commas correctly, their purpose is to subtly indicate a natural breathing space.
Here’s where a lack of commas can lead
One company that may now recognise the importance of correct punctuation is Southern Rail following this inadvertently honest exchange with a Twitter user,
Metaphors, similes, hyperbole, alliteration and wordplay are all techniques that, used judiciously, can liven up your writing. I’ll tackle each of them over the coming weeks and months, but let’s start with metaphors.
What exactly is a metaphor?
The dictionary definition is “something that describes a person or object by referring to something that is considered to have similar characteristics to that person or object”. For example, when we hear the phrase “crying a river of tears”,
