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About

Qualifications:

 

  • Merit in Basic Proofreading, Publishing Training Centre (2014)

 

  • ​BSc (Hons) International Business and French, Aston University (2001)

 

  • ​Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector (PTLLS), Sandwell College (2012)

 

I have considerable experience working in IT marketing, travel and retail and also undertake voluntary proofreading projects on behalf of charities including Birmingham Children's Hospital Charity and Anthony Nolan (formerly The Anthony Nolan Trust).

What's in a name?

 

SP, that's me, Simon Pegler; Ps and Qs comes from the expression 'Mind your Ps and Qs'. 

 

The precise spelling, origin and derivation of this phrase remains a bit murky, however, one likely explanation involves early printing presses and the advice given by printers to their apprentices....

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Printers would place individual letters on to a frame to print a page of text. Each line of text had to be set up one letter at a time, with each letter being set backwards and upside down. 

 

It was very easy to mistake lower case ps and qs and printers would be fined for every spelling mistake. Add to this the fact that paper was very expensive and the need for accuracy and attention to detail becomes clear.

And, of course, 'Mind your Ps and Qs' became popular in post-Victorian Britain as an abbreviation of 'to mind your manners' or more specifically, to say both 'please' (P's) and 'thank-you' (thank-Q's) and has been in use ever since to encourage people, especially children, to speak politely.

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