Punctuation and grammar save lives

A few years ago, around the same time I got involved in journalism, I read Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss. The title of the book comes from a bad (but necessary) joke:

A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons.

"Why?" asks the confused, surviving waiter amidst the carnage, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"Well, I'm a panda," he says, at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation. "Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

The joke is necessary because so many of us have forgotten, or have never learned, rules on punctuation and grammar. As an editor and budding corporate communicator, I'm constantly reviewing written work. There are mistakes everywhere: signs, menus, memos, emails, Facebook posts and undoubtedly, throughout this blog.

While we all make mistakes in our written work, I give points for effort. In most cases there are steadfast rules that we must stick to, but sometimes we can make decisions based on style. My postings will be short but will provide guidance on grammar and punctuation rules. If the topic of discussion is a matter of stylistic differences, I'll make mention of it. Otherwise, assume it's a rule.

I'm not here to Seventh-day-Adventist you with my grammar rules, but I am here to save lives. If the erroneous comma hadn't been in play, the panda may not have shot the other patrons. Perhaps if the comma existed in the following sentence, Grandma wouldn't have been a product of cannibalism: