What Does a Panda Bear Eating, Shooting a Gun Have To Do With Personal Branding?

The power of writing impacts your Personal Branding efforts.

Now, this might not seem much to you at first glance in the text below, it does say that a panda ate a sandwich, shot a gun, and left. When the correct statements should have actually read, “The panda, a large black and white mammal native to China. Eats shoots and leaves.” See the difference? This sentence tells you that the panda eats shoots and leaves, not shoots a gun then leaves the area. There should NOT be a comma after “eats” to ensure the message is correct.

Personal Brand
A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.
"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."
The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation.
"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots, & leaves."

Your written communications your personal branding efforts can be an asset  or a distinct liability.

See how just one (,) comma, or lack of thereof, can change the whole meaning of a sentence? What mistakes have you been making when it comes to your writing skills? Are you letting the fast-paced texting frenzy make you lazy? Do you send important messages without proper capitalizations or are your “quotes” in all the wrong places?

This comes from Lynne Truss, who wrote a book called, “Eats Shoots, and Leaves.” The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. It is such a great resource for punctuation and a fun-fun read! As you can tell from her book cover above the panda bear is removing the comma after eats.

It is a great lesson book and a great read! I highly suggest getting a copy. Amazon explains it this way:

| the power of a comma 

The Comma
We all know the basics of punctuation. Or do we? A look at most neighborhood signage tells a different story. Through sloppy usage and low standards on the internet, in email, and now text messages, we have made proper punctuation an endangered species. In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, former editor Lynne Truss dares to say, in her delightfully urbane, witty, and very English way, that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful and necessary things they are.
Amazon
Punctuation Flags

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines punctuation as, “the act or practice of inserting standardized marks or signs in a written matter to clarify the meaning and separate structural units.” Punctuations are “symbols” that you use in writing so that you ensure that others understand what you are “really” saying.

As a piano player (classically challenged), a music score has many symbols that tell me how the music should be played. For example, there is a staccato symbol, which is a dot that rests above or below the note (or chord). When I see this type of symbol, I will play the note with a very short, detached attack.

Another symbol is called the “slur”. This is a curved marking over short or long passages of notes, indicating the music needs to be played in a “legato style”, meaning the music should be played in a smooth and flowing manner, without any breaks between notes.

There are 14 punctuation marks (listed below) that help keep the flow of the message going:

> apostrophe
> braces
> brackets
colon
> comma
> dash
> ellipsis
exclamation point
hyphen
parentheses
period
question mark
quotations marks
semicolon

I am constantly referring to my go-to person, Mignon Fogart, the founder of “Grammar Girl” website and podcast. She is so easy to understand and clearly has a passion for grammar. Watch her TEDx TALK and you will see what I mean.

(Click here to see the difference between TED Talks and TEDx Talks.)

the comma, again;-)

To give you an example of her approach to punctuation, I want to use the comma. Grammar Girl said that the biggest source of errors in writing was commas. I believe that commas are the most misused, overused, and misunderstood punctuation, and I am guilty of committing all three;-). As I mentioned, Grammar Girl is my go-to person for grammar. Her books are easy to read and follow for quick references. This is one I really like for quick reminders: Grammar Girl’s Punctuation 911:  Your Guide to Writing it Right (Quick & Dirty Tips). Once you read her work, I think she will become yours as well!

Can Bad Grammar Represent Bad Personal Branding?

Punctuation 911

Click on the book cover below to see her book. You can click here to see all of her other books as well.


Let's look at another way punctuation affects the written message, using the comma and a colon.


“A woman, without her man, is nothing.”

The way this is written says that a woman is nothing, without a man. Now, read the same statement below, just using different punctuation.

“A woman: without her, man is nothing.”

The same EXACT words in the EXACT same order, but with different punctuation changes the meaning of the sentence completely. Now it reads that a man without a woman is nothing. Still, don’t think punctuation is important? You could even say that it means that without women, mankind is nothing.

In my blog, Face-to-Face Networking Is More Powerful Than Ever. Do You Know Why? I talk about how critical visibility is in helping one reach his or her success potential. Many think of visibility as only having an impact when in-person. It’s more than that. When someone reads your emails or texts, and especially if they have never met you, your writing represents who you are.

A general rule when texting, acronyms are more common than in day-to-day writing, and use, or lack thereof, punctuation is oftentimes overlooked. This does not; however, excuse you for poor grammar. In fact, it should make you more conscious of your messages. This brings me to another aspect of writing, and that is grammar.

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines grammar as: “A system of rules that defines the grammatical structure of a language.” Think of it as how you put words together to create a specific meaning.

Punctuation does not fall under this umbrella; however, to have immaculate grammar you must use correct punctuation.

See if this ring-a-bell from your earlier school days:

> dangling participles
> double negatives
> plural possessives
indefinite pronouns
> nouns
> pronouns

It's not what you write, but how you write it that can have a huge influence on your Personal Branding efforts!

Do they sound familiar? They should. But how many of us can write a grammatically structured sentence? It’s not easy. The structure of a sentence is the way the sentence is arranged grammatically. And there are many, many aspects of “good” grammar. Again, I go to “Grammar Girl” for clarification.

Over the years after doing a great deal of writing I have learned many things about grammar. And I am still learning. For this article, I want to share a few common mistakes when it comes to grammar.

Although the word, “Irregardless” is found in most dictionaries, it is not a “proper” word. “Grammar Girl,” says that “you should avoid using Irregardless in seriousness if you want educated people to respect you or take you seriously

So how does all this talk about punctuation and grammar affect your Personal Branding efforts? Here’s just one example.

A Director of Training once told me that she was going to recommend a sales rep for a District Manager position to one of her Regional Managers until she started receiving “bad” emails from him. When I asked what she meant by “bad” she said he used punctuation incorrectly and used “poor” grammar.

These emails were also going to others on the team, including the Regional Manager. She decided not to make that recommendation when the Regional Manager inquired about the rep’s emails and how poorly they were written. His concern was that as a rep that he was communicating with the doctors in that manner. It was a red-flag, and you guessed it, my client did not make the recommendation. Why?

Learning to write well is a Personal Branding tactic that should reflect your true self!

Had the Director of Training referred the rep at that time, she took the risk of hurting her brand; however, once she addressed the situation and it was corrected, only then would she be comfortable making such a recommendation for the rep.

When I started my business out of college, punctuation, and writing was not my number one skill set; however, over the years after writing many programs, proposals, brochures, websites, and books, I have become much better at how I write (and I am always learning) and so can you!

Are your punctuation and grammar hurting your brand minimizing your success potential or helping your brand stand out above the crowd?

At Leading Edge Branding, we categorize the following under communications:

  1. Conflict Resolution
  2. Emotional Intelligence
  3. Nonverbal Communications
  4. Verbal Communications
  5. Written Communications

To read more blogs on the topics of Communications, click here. Keep in mind that we are constantly adding new blogs so be sure to check back!

You can also submit any question concerning this topic or other personal branding topics by submitting your questions here. Our “ASK! The Branding Experts” will try to answer your question(s) in a blog!


About the Author

Parker Geiger has over 25 years in the Personal Branding Arena. He created the Personal Branding Center to

“inspire to empower”

professionals to build an authentic, personal brand that others want to see, hear, and value! From serving clients from ESPN, CNN, Delta, and GM to mention a few, his passion has inspired him and his team of experts to create programs where thousands of professionals have become self-empowered!

Leading Edge Branding

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