Why We Need Proofreaders

'To those who care about punctuation,' writes Lynne Truss in her bestselling book Eats, Shoots & Leaves, 'a sentence such as “Thank God its Friday” (without the apostrophe) rouses feelings not only of despair but of violence.' The book is heavy on hyperbole and seeks to entertain as well as educate its reader, but it also highlights a growing concern among some people about a perceived decline in standards of written English.

Facebook is littered with poorly punctuated comments left by folks who show scant regard for apostrophes, commas and capital letters. How many times have you seen 'it's' (with an apostrophe) in place of 'its'? It strikes me as odd that lots of people fail to observe this simple rule: Use 'it's' when you mean 'it is' or 'it has'. “Yes, but who cares?” you might say. I would argue that if we expect high standards in other forms of public communication then why not on social media websites? The problem is, you quite often see misplaced apostrophes in other places as well. I recently found myself staring in disbelief at a sign in a charity shop in England saying “All book's £1”. The generally accepted rule is that an apostrophe is never used to make a word plural. It doesn't matter if you're selling books, CDs, shoes or dresses, you needn't employ this much misused punctuation mark.

Such is the concern for the humble apostrophe that, for more than twenty years, the Apostrophe Protection Society has been battling to preserve it. “The little apostrophe deserves our protection,” claims the website, (https://www.apostrophe.org.uk) where you will find many cringeworthy examples of misuse. I even managed to find a group on Facebook called “Save the Apostrophe”. Alas, it only has 194 members at the time of writing.

From my experience of teaching English and proofreading translations, speakers of other languages seem not to have a problem with apostrophes. I dare say it's a phenomenon occurring mostly in English-speaking countries. The British linguist Randolph Quirk once said, “It would be ironic indeed if the millions of people diligently learning the language of Shakespeare took more care in their use of English than those for whom it is the native tongue.”

There is cause for celebration, however. Literacy levels have risen dramatically the world over in the last two hundred years. According to ourworldindata.org, only 12% of people could read and write in 1820. In 2016, a staggering 86% were literate. So, while the likes of Lynne Truss bemoan the lack of regard for correct punctuation, the bigger picture is looking very rosy indeed. And with so many forms of written communication nowadays, and with so many of us using them, there are bound to be mistakes. That's why we need proofreaders.