Blog the First.

This blog is about the intricacies of grammar. The debates and articles on various grammar topics are just plain interesting, when you really get into it. The very fact that we can argue about language and grammar is great proof of how smart humans are. There are times, however, when language cannot be up for debate. The meaning behind a sentence needs to be clear. This clarity keeps Grandmothers alive!!

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Rogers Communications, a Canadian company found this comma conundrum very costly in 2006; the company lost 1 million dollars because of a single comma.

The guilty sentence in question:

“This agreement shall be effective from the date it is made and shall continue in force for a period of five (5) years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successive five (5) year terms, unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing be either party.” (Austen, 2006)

WHAT THEY MEANT!

The agreement will be effective from the date it is made and continue for a period of five years from that date. After that initial five year period the agreement will continue in five year terms unless one party cancels the agreement by giving one year notice.

WHAT THEY SAID!

The contract can be cancelled at any time if one party gives the other party one year written notice.

Internal punctuation of a sentence can be the trickiest part of the English language, and still it is often underrepresented. For business writing this clarity matters a great deal. So how could Rogers have avoided their mistake? Well they could have made the whole sentence (most likely the whole document) easy to understand.

Anyone who loves reading and writing as much as I do (a love too large to be quantified) knows that there can be a wonderful joy in ambiguous sentences with hidden meanings, because the author makes the writing more complicated. This is where English PHDs are born from, this love for making language an art.

However, in business contracts this ambiguity has no place; there is only one intended meaning when it comes to a contract. If there is more than one meaning, jobs, money, and reputations are on the chopping block. What Rogers needed was some plain-language skills.  Websites like wordsmithassociates, the center for plain language and plainlanguage.gov are committing to promoting the concept of plain language. They are committed to the fact that using language that is unambiguous is not dumbing down writing, rather it allows clear meaning and for Rogers would have been the smarter choice. (National Institutes of Health)


Bibliography

National Institutes of Health. (n.d.). Plain Language at NIH. Retrieved from National Institutes of Health: http://www.nih.gov/clearcommunication/plainlanguage/index.htm