PTA Punctuation Woman strikes again

[UnquietDad]

Oh, spare us. It's the PTA letter again with its manic exclamation marks !!!!

And this week it's addressed to "Dads and Carer's". Aaaaagh. WHY? That's not even consistent. It talks about a secret 50p we are asked to bring in for a "little surprise" for a "certain day" which is coming up. It also mentions extra presents for "nan's".

It is appalling that these letters are going out in the name of the school.

(Amusingly, there is an aside to see your class rep if you are a new reception parent who "doesn't know what this is for." That would be if you are terminally stupid, then?)

Last time I moaned about these was in Chat, I think, and I got taken to task by a lot of pursed-lippers who thought I should volunteer to join the PTA instead of moaning.

Oh, and (killing two birds etc) we've got the would-be Governor spiels too, and I've had great fun deciding which of the six candidates I don't wish to vote for on the basis of their mangling of the language. One who definitely won't be getting my vote seems to think that you have to use "unnecessary quotation-marks" when you want to "emphasise" something. For God's sake.

Shouldn't that be 'For "God's" sake' UQD?

I can say "for the sake of whichever imaginary deity you want" if you like.

I'm with you, UQD.

There's no place for the overuse of exclamation marks or the mis-placement of apostrophes (or should that be apostrophe's? )

Is this particular mother a wacky and zany type who wants all the other mummis and daddies to know just how "kerayzeee" she is??!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mummies

I knew I'd slip up on a pedantry thread sooner or later.

At least I didn't put mummy's and daddy's.

At DS1's pre-school the other day, I noticed that they had a box marked "straw's" and another "scissor's"

They are infiltrating young minds with their bad punctuation.

Correct with red biro and stick up on notice board

Prob with 3/10 Could do better

Or See Me.

Those two little words used to strike fear into my heart when I was at school.

I'm so tempted to stick a corrected version up on the notice-board.

What annoys me is not that someone doesn't know these things but that nobody has intervened to correct the mistakes.

Yes, correct it in red biro and then report back with the response.

Maybe they are afraid of offending the only person who will write the damn thing. I volunteered to edit the PTA newsletter one year & the only managed to get rid of the job 3 years later by becoming Secretary (which actually meant running the PTA, as the Chair was an honorary post held by the head)
But my newsletters were impeccably spelt and punctuated...

"But my newsletters were impeccably spelt and punctuated..." Unlike that post, which has an rogue 'the'.

I have to do our PTA newsletter. Which means it is indeed impeccably spelt and punctuated. But first of all, if it were not, nobody would be any the wiser until it was out there; and second, it would be a brave teacher who would risk antagonising one of the few parents willing to put in the time and effort to help out with PTA events, by pointing out the errors they had made.