Don't lose this

Credibility and the case for proper comma usage

In the sunset of my high school career, one of my prouder moments was a crusade for proper comma usage. Other seniors finished their semester with a lackadaisical slide to the finish line. We could hear the siren song of summer, and graduation was just weeks away.

But I wasn’t finished. I was that person. I was voted “Most Parent Approved” of my graduating class—and in the most beautiful, hilarious, underdog maneuver, I also won Prom Queen. (I still wear my crown!) With the best and the worst of titles under my belt, I figured I had nothing to lose. So just weeks shy of graduation, I marched to the assistant principal’s office to ask about the commas.

“The commas?” he wondered aloud. “What commas?”

“I’m here to discuss the egregious use of commas on the anti-vaping posters in the bathrooms,” I exclaimed.

He remained confused.

“The commas!” I practically shouted. “They’re ridiculous!” The posters were littered with misspellings and misplaced commas. In a matter of sentences, I counted over 10 errors—errors I had to stare at several times a day.

Soon it was sorted out: while the women’s bathrooms were plastered with anti-vaping posters from the Stanford Medical Center, the men’s rooms had none. He’d never seen the poster.

He remained a bit confused (and amused?) but allowed me to retrieve a poster, circle the errors, and waltz my way to graduation.

I’d like to think that because of this crusade the posters are better now and that the teens of today vape less because their trust has been restored in the Stanford Medical Center and their marketing copy.

Credibility is slowly gained and easily lost. Though Stanford’s reputation goes before it, these posters were a poor expression of its name and renown. Typos aside, it continues on, with credibility and respect.

The rest of us are not so lucky. A typo in the heading, a misspelled name, a missing punctuation mark…as we read and catch errors, the slide from interested to questioning to frustrated happens in a matter of moments. Credibility is lost and interest is gone. On to the next author, speaker, influencer…there’s other people to turn to.

In your personal and professional life, credibility is essential. Your name is worth the time it takes to read back over an email draft, pause before you send a text, and check the details before you hit send. Your work is worth an edit.

Self-editing can get you far—and the best way to approach this is to read your work aloud. But there is no substitute for working with an editor. My favorite thing about helping writers is clarifying their words and helping them find confidence in their work.

That person who ended high school with a crusade for proper comma usage is the exact kind of person you want to polish your writing. I am eager to hear what you’re writing and to share about how we could work together—credibility, confidence, and clarity are worth the investment.

Whether you’re a writer by trade or you just send a lot of emails, your Weekly Word tip of the week is to take the time to review your work, look for the commas, do the credibility check, and then hit send!

 

Until next week,

Emily M

P.S. Anyone else who went to D’Evelyn Jr/Sr High School—did those posters drive you crazy? Are they still there? I’d love to know!