Cars, drugs and hyphenation

Tricky thing, punctuation. One of our reporters came into the engine room today gleefully brandishing a press release promising "free drugs and driving leaflet".

Yes, we all understand that the press release is referring to a leaflet warning of the hazards of driving while under the influence of recreational drugs. But as written it seems to be offering free drugs in addition to a leaflet on driving. The author of the press release would no doubt point out that the meaning is clear in its context, and all the ambiguity does is raise a cheap laugh. But in many contexts, from technical manuals to legislation, meaning must be made unambiguous.

In the case of that drugs leaflet all that's needed is a colon or, if you take the belt-and-braces approach, a colon and a brace of hyphens so the phrase reads "free: drugs-and-driving leaflet".

Alternatively, recast the phrase along the lines of "free leaflet on the danger of driving under the influence of drugs".

In my case an English teacher rammed home the importance of punctuation with the sentence: "King Charles I walked and talked half an hour after his head was cut off." This apparent claim of regal life after death can be sorted out with a single full stop: "King Charles I walked and talked. Half an hour after his head was cut off."

Your number's up (or down)

Accuracy is important, especially when dealing with statistics. I just had this phrase in some copy:

Approximately up to 25%, and in some cases more

So that would be 25%, or a number close to 25%, or a number less than 25%, or a number more than 25%. So it could be any number really. That's useful.

White of the egg

The other day I talked about buzzphrases, and one buzzphrase I've been hearing a lot recently is 'the white of the egg'. If the readers of a print publication, for example, are the yolk, then the additional audience that a web-based publication can interact with are 'the white of the egg'.

Yes, I think it's a horrible analogy too. And haven't these people ever heard of the word 'albumen'? Mind you, I can just imagine some sales manager standing up in a meeting and saying 'we need to attract the albumen' - not sure it would convey much meaning...

More protective nuances

Another email scam sneaked through the company spam filter; yet again even the most gullible reader (and did you know the word "gullible" was accidentally dropped from the 10th edition of the OED?) could hardly fail to be alerted by the standard of English.

For example: "we have also increased more security" and "you are advice to follow the link below".

Could it be that naughty children who fail to pay attention in English lessons are laying themselves open to computer fraud?

Bean and gone

A message on our work intranet 'swap shop' reads:

Runner beans. Runner beans 50p each. Just a few available

I assume the person who posted the message is selling plants, not just beans - otherwise even a small meal would work out as quite expensive...

Buzzphrase!

We had this sentence in some recent copy:

'Carbon footprint' is among the latest crop of buzzwords

That got me thinking: 'carbon footprint' is not a buzzword, it's a buzz phrase. And 'buzz phrase' could itself become a buzz phrase, unless it was written as 'buzzphrase', in which case it would be a buzzword... or do I mean buzz word?

Comment is free

You will be pleased to note that comment approval for the Engine Room is now turned off, which means that as soon as you leave a comment, it will appear on the blog.

Of course, as sub-editors Apus and I have an eye for the legally contentious, and we reserve the right to pull anything that might get us sued. No, don't take that as a challenge...

Probably a sub's fault

Talking of news headlines, this is from the Engine Room postbag:

I often wonder about the quality of the writers in the local press, particularly the Cheltenham Echo, but the front-page headline in yesterday's edition was an absolute belter. Some 'have a go heroes' stopped somebody being mugged in the high street and they came up with the headline of "Oi - leave that old man alone!"

Journalistic brilliance! Sounds like a Pink Floyd song.

Killer headline

I've just seen a great headline on the BBC News website: "Lack of nurses killing Africans"

I can imagine there is a shortage of African-killing nurses, but that's probably a good thing as far as Africans are concerned.