Page 1 of 2

Caustic Corner in the Essex Courier gives Kim Gandy the chance to sound off. The latest column took a look at the dreaded apostrophe...

It comes as no surprise that a Downing Street (former lecturer) aide recently sent a mistake-ridden letter to a woman who wrote to Tony Blair on, ironically, the subject of children losing out on education, due to the closure of schools.

What can we expect of our children, when there are teachers and parents who still can't get to grips with the basic rules of grammar and spelling?

Additionally, we are surrounded by sight vocabulary of such low standards it makes you wonder how sign-writers get jobs nowadays. Take these cringe-inducing examples I saw recently: "warrantys available", (emblazoned across the front of a car dealership), "boxe's" (a notice in a sandwich shop window) and "cut and blow drie's" (DISgracing a hairdressing salon's A-frame).

The same is true of the internet. Gullible companies spend thousands on expensive designer web-sites, packed with fantastic flash gadgetry and spectacular photography, only to be let down by shoddy and inarticulate text. Take for example, the web-site dedicated to coarse fishing, with the word "coarse" spelt "course" throughout!

Worst of all, topping the tawdry text charts are the countless companies who are offering "proffessional services". Not with two effs they're not!

Such people have probably never heard of professional proof-readers and copywriters; or is it because they'd rather spend the money on jumping bunnies and fancy fonts, to detract from the verbal quagmire that, no doubt, they got some barely literate minion to write, for peanuts?

There is little wonder that, surrounded by such nonsense as "apple's 20p" on market stall signs and "chart CD's", children haven't the faintest idea how to punctuate.

Next page...