Tag Archives: pedantry

Pennies & pounds & pedantry

Just received this from my bank:

Why is there a comma after my name? (But not after Yours sincerely. None would be better, but if one, why not t’other?)

Why is GOLD CARD rendered thus, twice. Gold Card would be less gratuitously shouty.

But worst of all, why ‘december Statement’? ‘Statement’ shouldn’t be initial cap, December absolutely should.

(I could quibble further about the constipated tone generally – ‘queries regarding this matter’ and the like – but I won’t.)

And this from the Head of Banking Services at one of Britain’s leading retail banks. Just, shoddy.

Both thinker, writer and pedant

Just starting to read NLP at work – a book on neuro linguistic programming recommended by a friend, and the very first paragraph has me muttering:

“Neuro linguistic programming (NLP) is the study of what works in thinking, language and behaviour. It is a way of coding and reproducing excellence that enables you to consistently achieve the results that you want both for yourself, for your business and for your life.”

“both for yourself, for your business and for your life.” ? Sorry, no. You can only have both of two things. You can’t have both apples, pears and bananas. That’s not how the word ‘both’ works.

*Sigh*

360 pages to go…