Wednesday 20 June 2007

Grammar Terrorism

As a public relations specialist who puts out press releases, it is your job to ensure the press releases are free from obvious grammatical errors. After all, the release is basically publicising whatever cause you are spruiking, and it looks bad for your client if you can't get your apostrophes in the right place.
And so it is with no hesitation that I add PR representative Kate McLennan to the list. Kate - if you are reeling off statistics about macular degeneration (which is certainly a worthwhile cause) you can NOT write: "78 per cent of Australian's claim to have never had their macula checked."
Where is the "Australian's" ownership in that sentence? That's right, there is none. Once is an accidental mistake and can be forgiven. Twice in the same release - unacceptable. On the list you go. Thanks Lindsay for tipping me off about that one.

2 comments:

Lindsay said...

I'm just a grammatical wanker with too much time and frustration on my hands.

Dave said...

Me too. Still doesn't excuse bad grammar.