Pedants and Sticklers

I started the day grumpy, having read an article in the Guardian about the imminent obsolescence of punctuation marks. Apparently we won’t need them, except possibly as components in emoticons.

Lynne Truss has written a book about punctuation for ‘people who love punctuation and get upset about it’ (extra). That’s me.

I sought solace in my much used copy of the sixth edition of the Australian Government Style Manual (2002). First published in 1966, it used to be the last word on punctuation, and indeed on all aspects of grammar and style, for writers in the Public Service. For all I know it still is. But when I looked into the latest edition online, almost the first words I saw were ‘Use shortened forms if they help the user understand quicker’. ‘QUICKER’? Used we not to have things called adverbs?


I fear the pedants and sticklers (that’s Lynne Truss again) are all but defeated.