Watch those commas!

[yendi]

Anyone who has passed middle-school English should be able to parse this sentence: [The agreement] shall continue in force for a period of five years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successive five year terms, unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party.

Alas, the lawyers at Canadian company Rogers Communications seem to have problems understanding it, and it looks likely to cost their company millions of dollars.

(Ganked from Robert Sawyer's blog).

Comments

[tru2myart.livejournal.com]

*Reads the sentence several times* Is it just me or would the punctuation have really made a difference one way or the other? Even had you left the comma out the sentence would have read:

The agreement “shall continue in force for a period of five years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successive five year terms unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party.”

Isn't it still basically saying that either party could cancel the contract with a one year written notice?

[yendi]

Without that comma, though, the first five-year block of time is set in stone. Adding the comma means that the termination can happen at any point.

[tru2myart.livejournal.com]

*rereads* You're right, that second comma cancels out the permanence of the first five years as well. *runs out and buys herself a grammar book*

[yendi]

This is the internet -- no need for books about grammar when you can look it up online! :-)

[hughcasey.livejournal.com]

I'm so swiping this for my blog, if you don't mind.

THIS is why basic education is so important!

[yendi]

Of course I don't mind.

(And icon love!)

[stratfordbabe.livejournal.com]

I hope you don't mind, but I've got to post this in my blog, too.

A $2.5 million dollar comma.

[yendi]

Of course I don't mind!

[digriz.livejournal.com]

Anyone who has passed middle-school English should be able to parse this sentence

You have seen what passes for acceptable writing for middle-school English lately, right? ;)

[jerel.livejournal.com]

Well, the trend has been not to correct student writing in elementary and middle school levels. That makes writing, like, work, and you want the kids to enjoy writing. So you don't correct their grammar or their spelling, or any of that. Or their atrocious penmanship (because that would hurt their self-esteem.)

Most of you probably think I'm kidding...

[yndy.livejournal.com]

I love that! :)

(and I've got an inappropriate comma addiction!)

[yendi]

Me too (as well as an addiction to parenthetical asides).

[not-hothead-yet.livejournal.com]

I didn't see it at first because I was thinking, "yeah so their contract can be nullified at any time with a one-year written notice, what's the problem?" then I read the article... WOW! What an expensive blunder!

Knowing the problem made it clearer: the second comma turns "and thereafter for successive five year terms" into a seperate, interjectory phrase and causing the predicate apply to the subject itself, rather than what should have been the second phrase (and second subject).

HA!

[yendi]

*nod* See, it's one thing for a casual reader to miss it the first time. But these things are examined by dozens of people. No excuse for the lawyers missing it.

[lovingboth]

I see it as ambiguous, but either way, it'd have been much better as two separate sentences.