The war of the virgule

My boss is, shall I say, particular about the use of grammar and punctuation in written documents. Perhaps it comes from his military background, perhaps his years in procurement with the US Navy, perhaps he is just a grammar and/or punctuation fanatic. The result, nonetheless, is the same - we feel like we are turning in a paper to our English teacher in high school and expect to get things back marked up with the horrid red pen (in reality he doesn't use a red pen).

Back in October he asked me if I knew what a comma was and when it should be used. I said, "I don't pause in my life so no, I don't know...". Kidding, of course. Correct punctuation is not the first thing on my mind when I am attempting to create a workbook on a topic for which I have knowledge. I blew it off and trudged along in my workbook.

He also has a tendency to use words and phrases that aren't typically used in our day to day conversations. Case in point - the use of the word virgule.

Early this month he shot me an email asking me if I thought it would be a good idea to put together a "style guide" for our department (there are SIX of us btw). A procedure had come across his desk, written by a team member that contained several slashes. My first step upon reviewing the email was to search Wikipedia for the word virgule. My naive Minnesota born brain had not heard of this word before. Upon review I learned that it is commonly referred to as a diagonal, slash, or slash mark and is used to between two words to suggest they are alternatives. It is also used in fractions, for typographical purposes and in poetry. His case is it cannot be used as a replacement for the phrase "and/or". My first question ~ why in the hell didn't he just use the word slash? Second question ~ why do we need a frickin' style guide for SIX people? Third question ~ how were we using it incorrectly?

This debate has spawned quite the war. Three members of the team are hotly contesting that we are using it appropriately when we refer to our company's customers as retailers/distributors/wholesalers/commercial customers. All of the terms are used interchangeably depending upon the business unit. We view this listing as alternatives that may be used within the company. He does not agree. This spiraled into a debate on whether one uses one space after a period before beginning the next sentence or two. My boss contends two, the rest of us content one. Any thoughts from the peanut gallery?

I doubt this will go away quietly. My coworker drafted an email last week that our boss basically rewrote and in which he used the word "promulgated". Promulgated, really? Can't we just use the word enacted? Or in this case, more appropriately published? Don't get me wrong, as a voracious reader and crossword fanatic I find it fun to learn new words. However, I don't expect others to share that same fascination and know when communicating with people at varying levels in an organization that I am better received if I don't treat them like idiots.

We're getting to the point where we don't put a lot of effort into writing anything anymore because we expect it to be ripped apart and changed. It's frustrating and somewhat demeaning. I imagine we are being overly sensitive about the whole thing and it has more to do with other issues which I cannot get into at this time but it interesting to me that the simple use of a slash has blossomed into this war.

Makes me think about the wars we've had in the world and what really spawned them. Perhaps someone got pissed off about the use of a virgule.