Really? You want to do that?

[karalianne]

I am editing a report. This particular person has, in the past, taken it upon herself to edit the punctuation of the template - thus making it incorrect according to our guidelines. That's why we have guidelines, you fool!

Today I found this sentence

Furthermore, staff confirm that they initiate help and/or support when necessary and in a manner

Comments

[noelleleithe]

Actually, further and furthermore are interchangable in the examples above. Both mean "in addition" or "moreoever." It's simply a style choice which to use. :)

[karalianne]

Our style choice is to use "furthermore" throughout the reports, and it is what is in the template. I have read the sentences these people add, and honestly, it sounds weird with "further" instead of "furthermore." Of course, I may well have been indoctrinated by the head editor, who is the one who wrote the writing guidelines. I just obey them. And edit the reports. (She gets other fun things to do. I just edit reports and create the templates. Oh, and seethe when she changes something I worked really hard on.)

[debgeisler]

It's clearly a spelling error: they are supposed to initiate help in a manor.

[karalianne]

That made me cackle. Thank you for that! :D

[six_crazy_guys]

Just wanted to point out that 1) many languages require a comma (or maybe a coma? :p) there, such as German and Russian, and 2) It was good style not quite so long ago (18th and 19th century style held that lots of punctuation was a sign of well-organized thoughts).

[karalianne]

You mean before that, right?

It separates the sentence into two unrelated clauses then, which makes no sense.

Variations of that sentence can be found several times throughout the template, and this is the only one she changed. I do not claim to understand how these people's minds work.

I didn't know that about German and Russian, thanks; this woman is native English, but I know one of the others is European (I can't recall just where she's from, but I have met her and she has a deep, guttural accent).

In this instance, I think the extra comma is a sign of foolishness, but that's just me. ;)

[couchspudprotem]

I blame the Word grammar editor, which has issues with the use of the word "that". (And I agree the extra comma is foolish, btw.)

[karalianne]

Oh, don't get me started on the Word grammar editor. We use the word "staff" as a plural (meaning "staff members"), but it always wants us to use the singular form of whatever verb follows the word. So it says that "staff encourage individuals" ought to be "staff encourages individuals" - which isn't right, since there are typically two or more employees working with these individuals.

Eye ewes my spell checker, and its great with grammar two. :P

[gothhippiegrrl]

I hate, randomly placed commas,

;)

[dorianegray]

You have my sympathy. My colleagues never seem to look at the Documentation Procedures either.