While driving recently, I noticed an establishment advertising a "Hot cooked to order breakfast." Reflecting on Lynne Truss' recent best-selling book Eats Shoots & Leaves, I pondered how this phrase could be more readable. If one comma and two hyphens had been added to this phrase, all would have been clear. As it was, I was like a curious cocker spaniel with my head tilted to one side.

A "Hot, cooked-to-order breakfast" would have clearly explained that the breakfast I would receive would not only be "hot," but also "cooked-to-order." Instead, I envisioned a Yoda-like conundrum that somehow I must qualify as being "Hot cooked" in order to "order breakfast." Or, perhaps, some comic-book hero nicknamed "Hot" quickly raced (or "cooked") in order that he might "order breakfast." Winston Churchill described the hyphen as "a blemish, to be avoided wherever possible." While that may be one approach to handling this stubby, horizontal line, I propose the converse is true: when the hyphen is required but omitted, it is a blemish, to be avoided wherever possible.

I have similarly chuckled at instructions from foreign manufacturers with cryptic instructions such as: "Do not process adjustments made while running engine briskly." Most of us monoglots have only satisfied a minimal language requirement during our education; we know that were we to write technical, sensible instruction in another language, we would fail miserably. Although we typically understand the author's intent despite the poor syntax, grammar, and word choices, we cannot hold our communication efforts to the same standard.

Therefore, adherence to punctuation and grammatical rules isn't driven by fanaticism to uphold the law like an exacting Javert of the English language. Instead, our aim is to accurately transact thoughts using rules like the ever-so-important hyphen. Communication technologies in this "Information Age," only permit us to communicate more efficiently-not necessarily more effectively. Our ability to convey a message faster and more frequently has often only magnified our shortcomings. (Imagine wincing at the sound of a squawking clarinet blasted over a 400-watt speaker system.)

So the next time you're posting your website, or about to print 5,000 brochures, ensure the way your message is communicated doesn't undermine the message itself.

Tom Urbanowicz is the owner of DataDesignIT, helping businesses operate efficiently and communicate effectively. Tom can be reached at tom@datadesignit.com or at 530.513.1691.