The Turner Ink blog contains rants, bloopers, observations and opinions. It also has handy tips on grammar and punctuation such as colons: semicolons; and full stops. As well as some very useful ‘how tos’. Feel free to leave comments. Be nice though.

Turner Ink

Copywriting Services London

Archive for the 'Punctuation tips' category

A sign of the times? Bloopers from around the UK

10th
Feb
by Sarah Turner

Friend and SEO colleague, Rob Dobson, emailed me this pic this afternoon from the Fulham Road, London. Hmmm…nice shop. Poor sign.

Window of La Maison Coloniale in Fulham

But La Maison is in good (bad?) company. Take a look at these corkers that have been sent to the MSN News site recently. 

Do not climb sign

Do not cling? Do not climb? Or what the heck. Let’s have both.

Help us reduce crime sign

Yeah, help us reduce crime against the English language.

Oxford Dictionary sign

I wonder if there were enough Ofxord Dictionary’s left to be handed out as leaving presents.

Waitress or waitor sign

We hope you’re fluent in English ‘cos we’re not. Although we make awesome stuffed olives.

 Tomato sign

You say tom-ah-to we say to-may-to. Let’s call the whole thing off.

Sue's Snax's sign

My personal fave. Sue’s Snax’s. So wrong. So very wrong.

Ladies powder room sign

I sort of love this sign. I like the fact the loo is referred to as a powder room. And it’s only 5p to have a tiddle. That’s a bargain.

What I especially like is one of the comments left on the MSN News site.

Also, in number 17, the apostrophe is not superfluous, merely in the wrong place as the word “ladies” is a plural, and the toilets are “ladies’ toilets”.

Oh, so it’s merely in the wrong place. That’s ok then.

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Tags: apostrophes
Posted in Bloopers, Grammar tips, Punctuation tips | comments icon 1 Comment »

Is the education system failing our children?

8th
Oct
by Sarah Turner

Depressing news in The Independent this week: Overseas students are better at English than British students.

According to Professor Bernard Lamb, who carried out the research, British undergraduates are nearly three times more likely to make errors in written English than those from overseas.

Depressing? Yes. Surprising? No.

After spending a year studying the written work of his students, Lamb was appalled by spelling errors such as flourescence, alot, seperate, yeild, relevent and introduications.

Grammatical errors included ‘done by my partner and I’ and ‘a women’. Whilst poor punctuation ranged from the misuse of semicolons to a complete lack of possessive apostrophes.

The Queen’s English Society, of which Lamb is president, blames the errors on a “widespread deterioration in standards.”

Lamb goes on to say that “we need to raise the very poor standards of English by more demanding syllabuses and exams, more explicit teaching and examining of English (including grammar, spelling and punctuation) and by consistent correction of errors by teachers of all subjects.”

And I couldn’t agree more.

The wishy washy liberalism that has pervaded our education system means there’s a reluctance to correct written work. There seems to be a belief that pointing out a kid’s poor spelling, sloppy punctuation or bad grammar will somehow thwart that child’s creativity.

Here’s the news: it won’t.

Good grammar and punctuation skills are the foundation on which great writing is built. Kids that get the ‘rules’ enjoy the act of writing a whole lot more. It’s like explaining the offside rule to a kid who wants to be footballer; the more he understands the game the more fun it is.

Lamb demands a more “consistent correction of errors by teachers”. But the real worry is that teachers themselves have a poor understanding of the English language.

Take a look at this picture sent to me by Twitter pal @racinghippo. This came home with his daughter’s homework this week. Scary, isn’t it?

This week's homework

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Tags: apostrophes, semicolons, writing technique
Posted in Grammar tips, Punctuation tips, Word stuff | comments icon 4 Comments »

What’s a semicolon and when can you use one?

31st
Jul
by Sarah Turner

The semicolon is a seriously abused and underused bit of punctuation.  And often abandoned (wrongly) in favour of the colon or the comma. 

But once you know how to use it you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. Seriously. It’s that handy.

Ok, so here’s a brief overview to get you on your way. The semicolon has two main uses.

1. It can join two complete sentences that are closely related:

My mother loved the flowers; the florist delivered them today.
I like going to London; the dollar is so strong against the pound.
I love the colour blue on me; white makes me look fat. 

2. It can separate a long list of items. Especially useful if some of the items in the list contain ‘and’ or the list is complex:

We have visited many islands in the Caribbean: Barbados; Turks and Caicos; Bahamas; and Trinidad and Tobago.
A few people are attending the meeting: Elaine Johnson, marketing co-ordinator; Sam Monroe, head of retail in Brussells; Don Smith; and Mary Jackson, project manager, London office.

Should you use a semicolon before the last ‘and’? Yes. Should you use a capital letter after the semicolon. Nope. Unless it’s a proper noun of course.

A client once told me that my use of a semicolon was, and I quote, ‘preposterous’. But when questioned (ok, cross examined and then beaten soundly) he was unable to explain when a semicolon should be used. Don’t be that client.

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Tags: semicolons
Posted in Punctuation tips | comments icon No comments yet »

Full stops. Inside or outside of brackets?

19th
Jun
by Sarah Turner

Ok, this is a short answer. A full stop appears inside the brackets, if the bracket contains a complete sentence.

She wore the red dress that evening. (Her sister wore the gold one.)
John needed the answer for question 7. (Jeff was struggling with question 1.)

The full stop appears outside of the brackets if the brackets don’t contain a complete sentence.

She wore the red dress that evening (and her sister wore the gold one).
John needed the answer for question 7 (however Jeff was struggling with question 1).

Simple, no?

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Tags: brackets, full stops
Posted in Punctuation tips | comments icon 2 Comments »

Punctuation: Make it a part of your daily workout

14th
Apr
by Sarah Turner

Used correctly, punctuation can often be the difference between a blah blah statement and a really powerful headline. Take this sign at my local gym.

Weight Loss sign

Our weight loss course lasts 12 weeks and the results could last a lifetime.

It’s not wrong. It’s just a bit dull. So what’s missing? How about a semicolon? A semicolon joins two complete sentences which are closely related.  

Our weight loss course lasts 12 weeks; the results could last a lifetime.

Yep, that’s getting better. This has got much more of a woo-hoo about it. It’s just 12 weeks! But you might stay thin, like, for-ever.

But I think what we really need here is a colon. Remember, a colon is used to show what comes after is an explanation or elaboration of what comes before. It’s a bit of a taa-daa! A drum roll if you like. Take a look.

Our weight loss course lasts 12 weeks: the results could last a lifetime.

Oooh now you’re talking. This has way more oomph. You could have the body of a model for the rest of your life just by turning up for 12 weeks. Awesome. Now, where do I sign-up?

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Tags: colons, semicolons
Posted in Punctuation tips | comments icon No comments yet »

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