Tuesday, August 08, 2006

The Two Million Dollar Comma

$2.13 million, actually. See if you can spot the offending punctuation below:
Page 7 of the contract states: The agreement “shall continue in force for a period of five years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successive five year terms, unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party.”
Think you've got it? Go read the Globe and Mail story and see if you're right!

I will also take this opportunity to shill for Lynne Truss' book Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.

1 comment:

LC said...

I'm guessing between "made" and "and" since removing that comma makes the period "five years... and thereafter" meaning infinity?