With a dash dash dash and a dot dot dot

April 13, 2007 4:42 PM

What is the proper punctuation for this slogan?

I am making a t-shirt with my organization's slogan on it, and I am having trouble deciding the most appropriate way to write it. Which of the following is correct?

A) Organization X - helping communities do XYZ
B) Organization X: helping communities do XYZ
C) Organization X...helping communities do XYZ

If none of these are correct, then what's the correct way to write this?

posted by nekton to writing & language (19 comments total)

em-dash: OK
colon: OK
ellipsis: not OK.

I'd probably go with an em-dash here.
posted by adamrice at 4:46 PM on April 13, 2007

I'd go with an en-dash with a space either side, but then I'm British.

Or two separate lines, perhaps?
posted by chrismear at 4:49 PM on April 13, 2007

How about Organization X in large bold letters on one line, and the slogan underneath, with no punctuation - is that an option?
Example Example Example
posted by iconomy at 4:56 PM on April 13, 2007

When I hear em-dash, think more like this:

Organization X—helping communities do XYZ

Agree with both adamrice and chrismear about acceptable choices. Two lines might work well to keep the slogan/image on the t-shirt less long-and-skinny:

Organization X
helping communities do XYZ
posted by cortex at 4:56 PM on April 13, 2007

The words aren't going to all be on the same line. They will be set up like this:

Organization X
helping communities
do ex why and zee

That definitely looks better without any punctuation.
posted by nekton at 5:00 PM on April 13, 2007

Ah. Yeah, definitely; if they're treated like that, you should use no punctuation at all.
posted by cortex at 5:04 PM on April 13, 2007

Organization X? Helping? Communities do x, y and z!
posted by box at 5:40 PM on April 13, 2007 [4 favorites]

I agree that the two-line layout is the way to go.

Maybe this is my closet OCD speaking, but I think that you should nonetheless settle on which punctuation format is going to be your "official slogan," since it's not always going to be applied to a t-shirt. God forbid you have some people using form A in their e-mail signatures, and others using form B.
posted by Brian James at 6:26 PM on April 13, 2007

You need to put your organization's name up top. Then below the name write the text in a smaller font size, put it in quotation marks and italicize it. The smaller part is called your "tag line". See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagline

You could use the Helvetica font for the upper text and then Times font for the lower, smaller, italicized text.

If you are going to put the text over on the left side of the shirt (your left if you are wearing it) then align all the text to the left side, don't center it. If you are going to have it dead on in the center then center all the text.
posted by bkeene12 at 7:04 PM on April 13, 2007

bkeene12: "You need to put your organization's name up top. Then below the name write the text in a smaller font size, put it in quotation marks and italicize it."

This makes my brain hurt. Don't use quotation marks around it unless you're quoting someone!
posted by loiseau at 7:06 PM on April 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Quotes around slogans are a no go, indeed.
posted by cortex at 8:28 PM on April 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

For some reason the ellipses make it sound like a clumsy double entendre to me. Organization X... helping communities do XYZ. Yeah, baby. You know what I'm talkin' about.
posted by joannemerriam at 9:13 PM on April 13, 2007

If none of these are correct...

You would say: If one of these is correct...
You should say: If none of these is correct...
One is singular. None is singular.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 1:49 AM on April 14, 2007

Man, w-g p, that takes me back.
posted by cortex at 7:07 AM on April 14, 2007

I'd go with Strunk and White in this case:

With none, use the singular verb when the word means "no one" or "not one."

[incorrect]: None of us are perfect.
[correct]: None of us is perfect.

A plural verb is commonly used when none suggests more than one thing or person.

[correct]: None are so fallible as those who are sure they're right.

***
But then, when none suggests more than one thing or person is ridiculous if you think about it.

Grammar aside, that last statement is a tautology--true, but meaningless. If you're not sure if you're right or wrong, it is impossible for you to be mistaken. Only those who take a position are fallible. Those who are sure they're right are sometimes wrong, and those are sure they're wrong are seldom wrong. No, wait...
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:42 AM on April 14, 2007

None is singular.

Oh for god's sake, not this again. See that thread cortex linked to, and repent.
posted by languagehat at 10:53 AM on April 14, 2007

Hmm, think about it this way.... The quotes around the tag line are acceptable as you are using them as quotation marks for words.

Remember, from a marketing perspective, this is what you are actually saying, in sentence format, without the added verbage:

The wonderful Organization X means "Helping Communties Do XYZ".
posted by bkeene12 at 11:14 AM on April 14, 2007

But the presentation of the unquoted slogan with the company name in official company context is sufficient to make it clear that the slogan represents/sums-up the company. The addition of quotes is unnecessary, and suggests the same thing as (or even reads explicitly as) scare quotes to a lot of folks.

The last thing you want to do is suggest that your slogan isn't so much an official slogan by which your company stands as it is something that someone could, in theory, say, let alone something literally disingenuous. Quotes won't necessarily read that way to all readers, but it will to some, which cannot be said of the no-quotes version.
posted by cortex at 11:37 AM on April 14, 2007

I work with a division of one of the biggest companies in the world. This division has a slogan that only appears two ways: either in a "logo lockup" (an unvariable but resizable piece of art), or in text.

The logo lockup is:
OmniMegaCorp Division
Life
Love
Liberty

When it's written in text, it appears this way:

The "Life, Love, Liberty" tagline that OmniMegaCorp Division uses is a reflection of its laudable and unselfish values [etc].

That's how one company handles it, anyway.
posted by ROTFL at 2:49 PM on April 14, 2007