Wrestling with Commas

“Tiredness, low blood sugar and the abundance of carbon dioxide in a room can result in untypical behaviour. Have you ever seen a team of engineers attempt to edit a paragraph at the end of a day-long meeting? It is hilarious. One will announce: “let’s finish this document and then go for supper.” It ends up taking two more hours to finish one paragraph. The idea of finishing before breaking sounds so practical (and logical) that the group overrides the hidden demons of tiredness and mental blindness. They bicker, criticize and insult one another, while shuffling periods, commas and words around to the frustration of everyone. It seems impossible to recognize the fact that they have become victims of tiredness. It is too bad.”

— Grant Koropatnick, P.Eng., Executive Director and Registrar, Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Manitoba, in an article “Hitting the Wall,” in the Spring 2012 edition of the Keystone Professional.