RE: Grammar: PCsâ critical data

["Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>]

Karen wrote: 

> I've got a phrase at work that marketing is insisting on:
> 
> 
> 
> âby protecting you and all of your PCsâ critical data
> because it's the critical data of multiple PCs
> I thought the rule was never to use an abbreviation like this with a
> possessive. (It's marketing verbiage that they want to keep short.)
> Am I wrong, or does anyone have any suggestions?
> Karen

Without quotes or some other demarcation, I can't tell which parts of the above are the words marketing insists on and which are your commentary. 

If their portion is "âby protecting you and all of your PCsâ critical data because it's the critical data of multiple PCs," then it's really bad marketing verbiage because it will leave readers puzzled and confused. 

But if their portion is only "âby protecting you and all of your PCsâ critical data," that seems OK to me (just OK), although I have to wonder about the context. This product protects both the physical safety of the reader and the data on the reader's computers? What is it, a house-sized meteor shield? :-)

Richard


Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------






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