Margie Wakeman Wells presented her “Punctuation Workshop: You Want Me to Use a Comma There?” on Friday, Aug. 1, at the 2014 NCRA Convention & Expo in the San Francisco. The 3.5-hour long session went into detail covering punctuation rules, including how some rules have changed over the years. Wakeman Wells used the example of commas before the “LLC” or between last names in legal business names. Advising to follow however the name is punctuated on the business card, Wakeman Wells pointed out that these commas are often dropped, and the new common usage is reflected in new rules in various style guides.
Sally Scharfe, RPR, who has been captioning for over 20 years, attended the session because she says it’s good to review the rules and remind herself why she writes the way she does. Additionally, Scharfe said Wakeman Wells was a funny presenter, that she had a good sense of humor about the topic.
David Sperling, RDR, CRR, CBC, echoed these thoughts. Even though he has been in the profession for over 40 years, Sperling was excited to spend a day talking about punctuation. “I will be changing some things as a result of it,” Sperling said, referencing some of the new rules he learned during the workshop.
