Madam - The punctuation gaffe on Labour Party posters (Letters, April 12th) is a common one and it reflects society's increasingly lax approach to language. Why do grammar, spelling and punctuation matter so much? Because they are the tools we need to communicate clearly.
Miscommunication can be costly and embarrassing. A Canadian utility company recently lost a $2.1 million supply contract because of an incorrectly placed comma in a legal document. Last year, a prominent Irish bank had a misspelled word on its school sponsorship banner and was forced to scrap the marketing material.
Most of us regularly receive incomprehensible documents from financial institutions, solicitors and the Government. Rather than merely laughing and putting such rubbish in the bin, why not send your examples of gobbledegook, jargon and poor use of language to: rubbish@clearink.ie? We want to name and shame these organisations on our website, in an effort to create a culture that values clear English.
Organisations that care about their readers use language correctly - and they deserve to be publicly recognised for it. That's why we have developed a Clear English best practice mark for organisations and a Clear English approved mark for individual documents.
Clear communication seems like hard labour for many politicians. Shouldn't it simply be their duty to voters? - Yours, etc,
SARAH MARRIOTT Director, Clear Ink, The Clear English Specialists, The Steelworks, Foley Street, Dublin 1.