A retired regional newspaper sub-editor who started a one-man crusade against bad punctuation has been included in a calendar celebrating Britain’s most boring men.
John Richards spent much of his working life correcting the spelling and grammar in reporters’ copy from a host of regional newspapers including The Argus, Reading Post, Nottingham Post, West Sussex Gazette and West Sussex County Times.
His campaign to correct misuse wherever it occurs led to the self-confessed pedant founding the Apostrophe Protection Society in 2001.
Now the grammar custodian – alongside a drain spotter, traffic cone enthusiast and milk bottle collector – will feature in the 2015 Dull Men’s Club calendar.
The club, which has more than 5,000 male members passionate about everyday mundane things, decided to publish the tongue-in-cheek calendar to highlight the dozen dullest in the organisation.
Assistant vice-president Leland Carlson said: “We wanted to have a bit of fun. The British are well known for being eccentric and this calendar is a celebration of that.”
October’s star is John who, for the calendar shoot, is pictured examining a sign outside a pub for apostrophe abuse.
John has taken it upon himself to lead a solo campaign – delivering a polite letter on headed Apostrophe Protection Society notepaper through the door of anyone he finds breaking the rules in Boston, Lincolnshire, where he lives.
He said: “I walk around town and see so many misplaced or omitted apostrophes it beggars belief.
“The local fruiterer sells pounds of banana’s, the public library, of all places, had a sign saying CD’s – even Tesco was promising 1000?s of products at reduced prices.”
He now chairs the group, which provides advice on the correct use of apostrophes via its website.
“Within a month of my plaint appearing in a national newspaper, I received over 500 letters of support, not only from all corners of the United Kingdom, but also from America, Australia, France, Sweden, Hong Kong and Canada,”reads a comment from John on the society’s web page.
“The little apostrophe deserves our protection.”
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The apostrophe is not an everyday mundane thing. And this is not a solo campaign. Although not a member of John’s group, I am with him in spirit. Along with many others. I am also considering starting a direct action group with the slogan: “Stop calling it a train station. It’s a railway station and always will be”.
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Well done to John Richards. It’s not just seeing apostrophes where they should not be that is irksome, but the total lack of consistency: there is no method, just pure guesswork. What I find more annoying are some reporters on local BBC radio who consistently say; “I am stood …”. One presenter, an ex-JP journalist persists in using me, when he should use I. I would have thought excellent grammar was important in those roles. Then again, you regularly read in their recruitment ads that “Johnston Press are looking for …” Oh dear, I admit I must be boring!
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A local school sent children home with a list of spellings including the word its. Every list came back with the word ‘corrected’ to it’s.
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*like*
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Most boring man? John should be lauded as a hero
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This seems to provide a good opportunity to call for an end to the use of “upcoming” instead of coming and, “pressured” instead of pressed. Broadcasters should be taken off air for the awful misuse of “leverage” (with American “levverage” pronunciation) as a verb.
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I hope for the sake of his sanity that John never looks at the newspapers where he spent so much of his working life correcting grammar and punctuation. Despite his gallant efforts, it is clear that the industry no longer cares.
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Judging by all the mistakes, not just pronunciation, in all the newspapers I read on line, nobody cares these days. Glaring errors, even in headlines, go uncorrected all day. Who needs sub-editors?
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Unfortunately, standards continue to fall. Spelling, grammar, and punctuation are not considered important. One excuse, often made, was that “the subs would correct it”. We can’t if we’ve been given the push.
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“even Tesco was promising 1000?s of products ”
– question mark instead of an apostrophe – was this a deliberate joke or done to wind John up?!!
From another pedantic sub-editor…
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And don’t forget the humble comma. My first journalism training officer of 40 years ago would often repeat the final words of a review of a stinker of a local amateur dramatic production: “The evening passed, happily. The comma counts.”
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I agree with all these comments; the clue is in my chosen name. Reporters would ask me how to spell a word and I would tell them to look in a dictionary otherwise they’d never remember.
One thing that would really grind this Peter Griffin’s gears would be the reporter who always wrote “would of” instead of “would have”.
I could go on or write a book – oh, “Eats shoots and leaves” has already been done. Drat!
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It say’s it all when the texting facility on my mobile phone doesnt include an apostrophe among the most commonly used punctuation mark’s. Its so frustrating, having to carry out four, separate action’s in order to include an apostrophe in my message’s!
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John, I am with you all there way. I can’t stand reading my local paper because of its sloppy grammar and use of commas etc. The classic is Blankshire MP, John Liar, said….. No need for commas, but see this all the time. If you don’t believe me remove the words within the commas and see if still makes sense. It does not.
Honestly you would not believe after all their training that hacks could still write basic errors like “the council ARE” instead of IS.
The problem is there is hardly any checking of copy, and often those supposed to check it are young enough not to have been taught how to write properly, i.e. under about 45.
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In my training days your copy got thrown in your face if it was bad.
Now, because there are no sub editors, it goes straight on to a template, put there by the same person who wrote it. The first time it might be checked, just the once if anyoned has time, it is already on the page!! You could not make it up, but it is true.
That is why stories in local papers are often so badly written.
No one shows kids how it should be done. It is called progress.
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Good work by this gent. Where do I sign up to his campaign?
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It is not only print journalism…the BBC is prone to grammatical howlers with its on-screen subheads/kickers, particularly on its 24-hour news channel
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“I’m bored of……….”
“……..and stuff”.
Even Private Eye (Literary Review, no less! Eye 1375), had “as I may of mentioned”
John Richards should be celebrated rather than mocked.
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Ex-author, you should know better.
Kids are goats.
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Apostrophes are vital…. but so very dull.
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The old chap’s right and deserves a knighthood. Some writers are an absolute shower… Standards have slipped and blunders can often be seen now in even the class papers and mags:
“principal/principle” muddles…..”enviroment”……”accomodation”….for example, all seen in my Daily Telegraph this year. I nearly choked on my breakfast Wheatybangs……V.Meldrew.
There was even a Sillit/Cillit Bang TV ad about two years ago which included a pic of a shiny draining board and it was labelled “stainless steal.” I wound it back on my Sky Plus thingy and it was true. Amazing…..
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Hyphens are missing from the phrase “drain spotter, traffic cone enthusiast and milk bottle collector” (sic).
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Mr Richards loses all credibility as a professional sub when he says he received “over” 500 letters of support. Oh well, at least he didn’t say “some” 500 letters …
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My Fowler’s MEU states that apostrophes are acceptable where they reduce ambiguity or ugliness when pluralising unusual (e.g. foreign) words and contractions.
Personally I think CD’s is clearer than CDs, and many prefer The 60’s to The 60s. “Mind your p’s and q’s” is much clearer than the hideous “Mind your ps and qs”.
That’s the problem with grammatical pedantry. There’s always another grammatical pedant with a different style guide in hand who disagrees with you.
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Oops…now Fraser has gorn and dun it……
One of the latest sightings of a blunder is by Fraser Nelson, ed. of the Spectator, who when writing about the Clacton by-election result today in the D. Telegraph says: “….a problem that effects not just Clacton but Blackpool….”
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CD’s is correct. The apostrophe shows where the isc is missing ?? But: drain spotter is correct; traffic cone enthusiast should be traffic-cone enthusiast; and milk bottle collector should be milk-bottle collector. TCE and MBC are hyphenated cos the first two words are adjectives, whereas drain spotter is a noun….Sorry Mr Harvey
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