08.05.08

And you can single-quote me on that

Posted in punctuation, typography at 9:25 am by Bill Brohaugh

I have figured out the real reason American automakers are bleeding red ink—at least for one company. It looks as though the decimal point in figures tallying Ford Motor Company’s losses keeps moving one numeral to the right. Simple explanation: Ford has its punctuation backward. A million in losses? Oops, backward decimal point . . . one digit to the right . . . ten million . . . one more to the right, and a hundred million.

I have proof:

If Ford can’t control its advertising apostrophes, allowing them to pretend to be single open quotes, how can we possibly expect the company to get the decimal points moving in the right direction? I just hope that the same proofreaders aren’t working to make sure that first gear and reverse are properly labeled.

(If catapostrophes amuse/enrage you, I invite you to tune into the Apostrophe Abuse, apostrophism and Apostrophe Catastrophes blogs. The latter blog features one of the blogosphere’s best slogans: “The Worlds’ Worst. Punctuation;”)

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