The Semicolon: Behind Closed Doors

We found this sentence today in a story about open offices vs. the sort with closing doors, and had ourselves a bit of a laugh:

"Being a literary editor requires considerable privacy so that we can discuss copy with some of the very highest level authors in the land. [SPOGG: "The mid-list authors, we don't care so much about..."] Seemingly petty things, like whether something should be a comma or a semicolon, ensures the quality. That simply could not happen in an open-plan office."

This is because the sort of high-maintenance git who can only talk about punctuation behind closed doors is the sort of person other people laugh at. It would be hard to get work done with people giggling all the time.

Also, "ensures" should be "ensure." Petty things -- such as subject and verb agreement -- ensure quality.

The article...