Comments on: Five Punctuation “Mistakes” You Should Make

By: Matt Ambrose

Matt Ambrose — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 17:46:46 +0000

Hi Hamish,

Great tips. Copied down, printed out and added to my copywriting notes folder.

Thanks,

Matt.

By: Mary Baum

Mary Baum — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:55:58 +0000

Hamish,

I’m with you on everything but the quotes.

Maybe back in the days of text-only emails – but then we still had stars and the greater-than and less-than signs. Now we have bold and italic, and bold, italic and a different color. And stars and dashes and greater-than and less-than, if you’re not in a wysiwyg system and really don’t want to add those tags. Using quotes for emphasis just sets my teeth on edge.

And yes, I’ve been accused of being a product of the 1970s.

But I will also end a sentence with a preposition at the drop of a hat (where did that come from?) and use periods at the end of every item in a bulleted list, even if they’re not sentences (I’m an auditory reader, and I want to help everyone else hear what I’ve written too.)

Also, Jack, I really don’t consider conversational writing ungrammatical in the least, unless you’re using the wrong case of a pronoun – “she came to dinner with Ed and I” instead of “She came to dinner with Ed and me.” The way we talk is really perfectly grammatical, imho – I think a lot of people confuse good grammar with big words and an erudite tone. And it sounds like (well, as if would be the grammatical construction here, so maybe you’ve got a point) we three here are all agreed that conversational is the way to go.

I do think I lay the parens on a little thick, though. If this were real copy I’d probably go back and clean them up.

By: jackforde

jackforde — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 09:28:16 +0000

Thanks Hamish! Thanks too for your post. I saw it via a “Google Alert” before I saw the link here in your reply. I have to admit… after years of writing this way, my grammar has lapsed considerably… (See? There I go again!)… but I think you’re dead-on correct. The value of this technique is even more relevant online.

By: Hamish Gilbertson

Hamish Gilbertson — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 04:46:08 +0000

Reading this produced a big “aha” moment for me. Well two, really…

Firstly, I use all five extensively when the context allows less formal writing. As I just blogged I might have picked them up from reading your newsletter for a very long time. But, then again, I’ve had a tendency to make some of these mistakes for a long time*. And they are also present in a lot of copy.

Secondly, all five also have value in the context of making website content more readable (or “scannable”) — in that they help break content up — and engaging.

Ellipses and em dashes are particularly useful when looking to make key messages stand out in a lengthy page of web content.

So, your mistakes have added value when used in online sales copy.

BTW great to see the value you have offered in your newsletters available at a website!

Cheers
Hamish

*This comment is a good example.