I posted previously here about a city in the UK that has decided to do away with apostrophes on its street signs. Well, they appear to have started a flood of such procedures, presumably known as an apostronectomies. And now there’s a new society that has sprung to the apostrophe’s defense, the Plain English Campaign (I think that’s the right URL—not really sure). The article in The Register quotes Marie Clair of the PEC as saying “All the feedback we have had suggests that people want to hold on to the apostrophe. I think the council should listen to its rate payers.” Oh, yes, the Apostrophe Protection Society kicked in their comments too. John Richards of the APS is quoted as saying “It is choosing the easy way out, dumbing down and showing contempt for the large number of area’s residents who take a pride in the English language.”

Well, although I think it’s a tempest in a teapot, it’s one well worth navigating. I agree our proud English language (such as it is spoken in America) is slowly evaporating. Dumbed down. Simplified. One wonders who still loves convoluted sentences?

Writing: Punctuation

Are you ready for this? The city of Birmingham, England, has (by decree) decided to drop possessive apostrophes. See the story on the London Times website.

Actually, they’re addressing a real problem: the inclusion of apostrophes in street names. Their reasoning is that it can confuse computer systems that look up street addresses. And, the article points out, no apostrophes are used by the United States Board of Geographic Names, with only five exceptions (Martha’s Vineyard is cited as an example).

Uh, so how have all these computer systems been doing it thus far? If you’ve ever looked something up on Google Maps, you’ll find that the software is pretty amazing at interpreting what’s typed in.

Oh, and apostrophes are expensive! “The cost would be astronomical,” the article quotes a council member as saying.

But, someone is riding to the rescue. The Apostrophe Protection Society in Lincolnshire has spoken, claiming it undermines proper education. I tried to find a URL for the society (surely the apostrophe deserves its own website!) but the URL seems dead.

Read the article for yourself and leave a comment on the Times website and one here too.

Writing: Punctuation

The Oxford comma is known by several names, such as serial comma or Harvard comma, and is the comma that goes just before a conjunction in a list. If you’d like to get a flavor for the controversy over its use, see the Wikipedia entry on the serial comma. People do get quite passionate about such little things!

Examples:

For years I always thought of the first example as correct, and perhaps you have too. It’s economical, after all, Read more…

Writing: Punctuation

One critique I get at all writing workshops is that I use parentheses too much. In fact, one critiquer, an excellent writer, commented that reading my work was like shoveling snow off a walk–every so often he hits an uneven spot in the sidewalk and it forces him to come to a halt. I suppose it’s possible to have too many (though I’m not sure). Oops–I just did it!

So why do I insert all those parenthetical comments into the books in the Broom series? I think the simplest explanation is that the writing style is completely informal. One fan wrote that she could imagine herself in my living room, sitting in front of the fire, listening to me tell the story in my own words. I must be succeeding, because that’s exactly what I aimed for.

I’m not alone in using parentheses. In fact, I’m in good company. No less a publication than the Economist uses them regularly. Read more…

Writing: Punctuation, Writing: Style