{"id":999,"date":"2015-11-26T13:08:28","date_gmt":"2015-11-26T11:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ulrikehill.co.za\/?p=999"},"modified":"2015-11-26T13:30:03","modified_gmt":"2015-11-26T11:30:03","slug":"apostrophe-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ulrikehill.co.za\/?p=999","title":{"rendered":"Apostrophe Abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Luisa Zissman received a large amount of media attention and not because she reached the final of The Apprentice <\/em>in 2013. Instead of praising her business acumen, grammar zealots and social media fans criticised her lack of grammar knowledge.<\/p>\n

A large section of the population was outraged because Zissman did not know how to use the apostrophe in her business name. This indignant outrage was the result of Zissman\u2019s tweet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it bakers toolkit or baker\u2019s toolkit with an apostrophe?!\u201d she tweeted.<\/p>\n

After receiving a lesson in apostrophe use from her Twitter fans, Zissman enraged her fans and the grammar zealots further by tweeting, \u201cI like the look of bakers,\u201d and so decided to drop the apostrophe.<\/p>\n

Zissman\u2019s business acumen was praised during the BBC\u2019s show but her ignorance about basic punctuation has called her credibility and professionalism into question. Her work ethic was also questioned as people felt she was \u2018being lazy\u2019 by not attempting to understand the use of the apostrophe.<\/p>\n

Ironically, Zissman describes herself as having \u2018a brain like Einstein\u2019.<\/p>\n

People want to do business with companies who are professional and credible. If companies cannot grasp the basic rules of punctuation then what else do they not know that is crucial to providing a professional service to their clients?<\/p>\n

If you still feel that apostrophe ignorance is no big deal then consider the following examples of miscommunication:<\/p>\n