Grammar vigilantism now a profession

Across the pond, supermarket chain Tesco made news yesterday for having changed the wording in the sign above its express checkout lines from “10 items or less” to “up to 10 items.”

The change follows years of debate about whether or not “less” is acceptable in this usage. The wording for the new sign was suggested by a language watchdog calling itself the Plain English Campaign.

Meanwhile, in the U.S. last month, a couple of grammar vigilantes calling themselves the slightly superheroish-sounding Typo Eradication Advancement League made news for their cross-country campaign to fix typos in public signs with markers and correction fluid. Their trek came to an end when they were given one year’s probation for having edited the wrong sign.

The public debate about the importance of good grammar is making steady news these days.

Momentum picked up with the success of Lynne Truss’ book Eats, Shoots & Leaves, a lament on the decline of punctuation.

Since then a steady influx of websites devoted to grammar, typos, and punctuation has found an audience on the Internet. The podcast Grammar Girl: Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing is probably the best known, having been recognized by no less an icon than Oprah herself.

Two others are Regret the Error and Illiterate Businesses, which spotlight grammatical blunders in journalism and business, respectively.

Even individual puncutation marks are getting special treatment. The “Blog” of Unnecessary Quotation Marks looks at misuses of you-know-what. There are no fewer than three websites devoted to the apostrophe alone: Apostrophe Protection Society, Apostrophe Abuse, and Apostrophism. And one site confines itself solely to abuse of the lowercase “L.” Yes, that “L.”

While some of these sites are intended to be more amusing than didactic, they do show that people are paying attention to grammar and usage. Errors in your company’s marketing content probably won’t wind up on one of these sites—unless they’re funny or unusual—but they will be noticed by at least part of your audience.

Consumers make judgments based on whatever evidence is available, which is often website and marketing content. Try not to make them laugh with sloppy grammar.