On missing hyphens and misguided quotes

Flickr / cybertoast

Today I read this funny post from Louise Julig (by way of Mary Cullen) about how the incorrect use of hyphens finally put her over the edge.  And I found myself nodding in agreement on the frustrations of seeing the poor use of punctuation, well, everywhere.

Now, I do recognize that I can be a bit neurotic when it comes to typos and that not everyone notices such missteps. But if you’re responsible for writing on behalf of your organization, it’s important to know that those tiny little dots and dashes can make a big difference in how your message is perceived by your readers.

The one that irks me most frequently is the use of quotation marks to hype a claim.  If you’ve never noticed this before, check out restaurant signage (the kinds with moveable lettering are often the worst offenders), diner menus and fliers.  They make statements such as:

“Free” soft drink with purchase of entrée!

Just in today…“fresh” seafood!

So is that drink free, or isn’t it?  And will those shrimp make me sick?

The claims are mentally called into question because the quotation marks suggest that the words are being used in way that’s somehow different from their common usage. They’re sometimes referred to as apologetic quotation marks, and when used correctly, they often indicate irony.  So unless you’re intending to be wry, be careful.

If you want to emphasize a word, either for readability or to make sure it gets noticed, underline or italicize it, make it bold or put it in a different font.  There are countless ways to highlight a concept.

But unless you really want to call your claim into question, please don’t put it in quotes!