COMMUNICATION CLINIC

The Comma Headache at Daily Sun

Somebody on the staff of Daily Sun newspaper of Nigeria seems to have  a problem with the comma. Perhaps the editor, Mr Onuoha Ukeh, is on leave or there is a crisis of sub-editors in Daily Sun.
In one issue alone – the Monday, March 9, 2015, issue – the comma is placed wrongly at several places. Including headlines! After a good headline for the lead story on the front page, “Chibok: Gov’s aide blasts Fani-Kayode”, the rider left the reader in wonder: “Says, Shettima’ll rather ignore him on Boko Haram comments”. What’s the comma after Shettima doing? Is “Shettima’ll” better than “Shettima’d” in this case?
The punctuation marks in the title of Eric Osagie’s column on the back page are even more nauseating: “In memory of the Nigerian Soldier, killed by Boko Haram!” What’s the comma doing there? Why is “Soldier” capitalised but “memory” is not? And why the exclamation mark!
Maybe the reader should leave “the flipside” and read the inside pages. Surprisingly, the headlines inside look better.
Daily Sun needs just a little treatment today at the CLINIC: take two tablets of paracetamol before going to bed each night for one week.
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