Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

This is a great fun book, and I really enjoyed reading it. It has been a while since I laughed so hard. Wait, should I have said, "This is a great, fun book"? When do we use Mrs. Comma? The author writes, "Punctuation has been defined many ways. Some grammarians use the analogy of stitching: punctuation as the basting that holds the fabric of language in shape. Another writer tells us that punctuation marks are the traffic signals of language: they tell us to slow down, notice this, take a detour, and stop." (p. 7). Punctuation can alter the sense of a string of words. Take the following example: A woman, without her man, is nothing. A woman: without her, man is nothing. The use of punctuation is like fashion; it has its moments. One day it might be fashionable to use a semi-colon; another day it might not! Wait a second! Did I use my punctuation right? Should there have been a semi-colon after the word semi-colon? What a conundrum! And talking of semi-colons, did you know that colon in Greek means a limb (hence part of a strophe. A strophe is the first of two movements made by a chorus during the performance of a choral ode, but you all knew that, didn't you)? So a semi-colon is a half limb. But wait a minute, does apostrophe come from strophe or the other way round? Or maybe there is no relation whatsoever? Open your dictionaries! Did you know that women use exclamation marks more than men! Wait, I really meant to put a question mark! Did you know that most punctuation marks were invented by the early printers? Punctuation can render the written word into the way we talk. For example, poses between words, marking thoughts... How about punctuation in text messages? Do any of us bother putting them? And how about in emails or while chatting on the internet, how do we use punctuation? Who invented the smileys and for what reason? Smileys are made of punctuation marks. For example, :-) is a smiley meaning a smiling face. Smileys are made of punctuation marks. Funny enough, I was looking for the plural of smiley (which I thought to be smilies) and could not find the word in either the Oxford or the Webster dictionary. I, however, was able to find it in the Collins and the American Heritage dictionary. I wonder why that is?! Hey, was that a correct usage of punctuation?!!!!! Here's a nice fact: a few years ago, the average age of email users was 20. It is now 30, and climbing. More and more of us are using email to communicate with each other, and more and more of us are at a loss of how to use punctuation properly, if any. Just look at all the punctuation mistakes I have made in this short review (please don't count the grammatical errors!!!!!). This is a book you will love reading, and you will find yourself with a smile on your face. This book does not intend to teach you. Rather, it informs you! Did you say women use exclamation marks more often than men? The title of the book came about from a dictionary definition of panda. According to the author, the dictionary defined panda as a bear-like animal that eats, shoots and leaves. On the cover of the book, you actually see a panda on a ladder erasing the comma after eats. The sentence should have correctly read, `a bear-like animal that eats shoots and leaves.' Well, no one is perfect. (I keep wondering whether I am using punctuation correctly. What hath this book done to me? I mean to me!!!!!) I highly recommend the audio version of this book as well. In fact, the book is based on the audio version. Throughout the audio you will hear interviews with punctuation professionals and secret societies with the sole goal of correcting punctuation mistakes. Really, no kidding! Well, maybe not that secret. One such society has as its goal to correct apostrophe mistakes. For example, its or it's? They actually write letters to editors and store owners (is that owner's?) making them aware of the correct usage of this infamous punctuation mark. Some store owners actually change their signposts to reflect the correct usage. But many don't. Amazing! Who said all secret societies are bad? Here's a fact: The English language first picked up the apostrophe in the 16th century. The word in Greek means "turning away", and hence "omission" or "elusion". In classical texts, it was used to mark dropped letters, as in t'cius for "tertius" (p. 37). O, before I forget, here's a useful insight: The American and British editions of this book use punctuation differently! Wait, before I go, here's another thought: hopefully the author won't read my review and use me as an example of how horrible my punctuation is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lynne Truss writes a wickedly funny treatise on the death-- if we, the faithful who care about apostrophes, are not armed and ready to fight the barbarians-- of punctuation as we know it. Of course, her dilemma is that only people who care about correct punctuation are the ones who will read this fascinating book. Those who are most guilty will not or cannot read her. But for those of us who read this book there are wonderful tidbits. For example, Oliver Wendell Holmes said that We have to dismount from an idea and get back into the saddle again at every parenthesis while the writer Gertrude Stein found question marks the most uninteresting of all punctuation marks. F. Scott Fitzgerald said that the exclamation point (as it is known in America) is "like laughing at your own jokes." My favorite image from the book is that of the semicolon that "quietly practises the piano with crossed hands." For those of us who care, Ms. Truss gives a good review of the rules of punctution. She discusses thoroughly the correct use of all forms of punctuation, from the apostrophe to the hyphen, and compares the differences between British and American usage. She also discusses the blight that e-mail messages have brought on us all. "I keep thinking that what we do now, with this medium of instant delivery, isn't writing, and doesn't even qualify as typing either: it's just sending. What did you do today? Sent a lot of stuff." I fear that punctuation problems are worse on this side of the pond than they are in England. I attended a black tie event recently for over 300 people in which words large enough to be read from the back of the dinning hall were projected on a huge screen behind the speaker. The apostrophe was used over and over to express the plural, rather than the possessive of words. I felt as obsolete as a rotary telephone.

Once I built up some immunity against the author's relentless snobbery, I thoroughly enjoyed Eats, Shoots & Leaves. I've always been somewhat suspicious of the person who makes a habit of publicly shaming any individual unlucky enough to use poor grammar and punctuation in her presence - a habit she justifies with the rather transparent and eye-roll-inducing excuse, "I just love the English language too much to let the errors slide!" It seems there is always an ulterior motive at play: like Mom always said, "The bully who puts others down might just feel insecure about himself." If Mom's words are true, this author has one major inferiority complex. But, although she is a bit of a curmudgeon (beware of the preface), she's quite funny; I found myself appreciating her sense of humor when it wasn't being used at the expense of the poor chap with bad punctuation. And it's true that we seem to have reached an all-time low when it comes to our knowledge of punctuation's proper usage. Who can disagree with her when she argues that it is in our best interest to refresh our memory for the sake of the clarity and style of our writing? There were definitely a few places where she clarified some usage rules for me. In addition to being an engaging and fascinating read for anyone who is interested in English, this book is an amazing resource for writing teachers. It's full of examples of what happens when punctuation goes bad, examples that my students actually enjoyed. (I'm not kidding; they even laughed out loud at a few!) Here's just a small sampling of what she offers the writing instructor in the way of helpful illustrations: After explaining some rules for the much-abused apostrophe, she writes: I apologise if you know all this, but the point is many, many people do not. Why else would they open a large play area for children, hang up a sign saying "Giant Kid's Playground", and then wonder why everyone stays away from it? (Answer: everyone is scared of the Giant Kid.) - page 41 When discussing the comma, she writes: ...readers grow so accustomed to the dwindling incidence of commas in public places that when signs go up saying "No dogs please", only one person in a thousand bothers to point out that actually, as a statement, "no dogs please" is an indefensible generalisation, since many dogs do please, as a matter of fact; they rather make a point of it. - page 81 Another aspect of the book that I found really rewarding is her discussion of how punctuation influences style. It's true that much of her stylistic rules may seem rather arbitrary (for example, when she argues that dashes warmly welcome an aside while a pair parentheses treat the aside like more of an intruder). Even still, I found it interesting to think about how punctuation can subtly and not-so-subtly influence the tone and message of my writing. And pretty much of all of her arguments are persuasive, even if they are somewhat subjective. So, in closing, if you have a high tolerance for elitism and even a remote interest in writing, I heartily recommend this book. English teachers, especially, should get their hands on this one.

Who wants to read a book about punctuation? Not me! Then my professor assigned this book as one of our texts for a grammar class, and I enjoyed the read more than any other grammatical reference I’ve ever encountered. I cheered, I laughed, I learned and then I got down to the business of writing. In my opinion, this wonderful book belongs on every writer’s bookshelf.

Fabulous way to understand punctuation correctly.

While plodding along reading Eats Shoots & Leaves, I entered into the section about apostrophe usage, and I soon struck an “Ah, Ha!” moment. The point of impact occurred when I read about apostrophe use on names ending in “s” or with the sound of “s.” The author tells me to use an apostrophe “s” on a modern name ending with s as in a name like Keats. Her example is “Keats’s poem;” she also illustrates this use with other names with this characteristic; but, hold it—don’t go anywhere: there are exceptions. The rule does not apply for ancient names. Sure—here it is again—another exception to a rule, and I sigh in frustration. A flashback slides to the fore of stacked dreadful school memories: a wild-eyed teacher, with red pen in hand, marking up my paper like some sadistic and frenzied fiend: gashing and slashing until it drips in red— a mutilated victim no longer recognizable. Back then, I rebelled and declared war against punctuation and the rules of grammar; but, with relief to the gentle reader, I can state that those days have passed. Presently, though the fruit of careless habit persist, my papers are not victims of mutilations, and I no longer entertain thoughts of rebellion. I can say that I feel much better about this business. Unquestionably, as a frequent judge at oral interpretation contests, I recognize the usefulness of punctuation for the speaker as a guide to various pausing, tone change and inflection. There, nevertheless, are too many exceptions to the rules and it complicates my ability to use them. Other academic areas, such as mathematics, fair much better in rule consistency. In math, students are taught to use a certain order of operations called PEMDAS: a mnemonic contrivance standing for parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction, respectively, when dealing with multiple arithmetic operations in a math problem. It is consistently used, and there is no exception. When a student gets the order of operations rule down, he can happily do the math. Punctuation rules, likewise, need to follow such uniformity so the student can happily do the composition. Appreciating her prime purpose to inform the reader in a whimsical and interesting manner about correct punctuation, I, nonetheless, found her roundabout— sometimes cute and sometimes catching—way of presenting the how and why of punctuation no more effective than a worn and weary copy of Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style. After reading the pages on this particular punctuation concern, I was hardly better for it. Sometimes, a few direct words will do a better job than scores of words. “The bigger the glob; the better the job,” is a bromide that tells one what not to do, and it applies to poor quality soldering of electronic components. It, however, can apply to exposition as well.

The humorous and definitive book on what happens when we don't punctuate correctly.

Lynne Truss has done an excellent job educating (and entertaining) the public on punctuation. At least, she's done a great job educating and entertaining me. I began this book with the outlook that I'd finally read a non-fiction book that stood for the truth, and was neither ashamed about it nor self-flattering. This is exactly what I received from Miss Truss' (or perhaps Truss's) Eats, Shoots & Leaves. (Note the George Bernard Shaw style in the writing of the title.) Let's begin with organization (or perhaps organisation). Truss has done an excellent job organizing this book. Each section deals with a certain portion of punctuation, and sticks to that section (unlike some books such as Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus). When rules apply to the punctuation, Truss lists these rules in a very organized manner and elaborates where extra information is needed. Beginning with an Introduction, then the main sections of punctuation,[<- Notice this Oxford Comma] and following a Concluding section. During all portions of the book she acknowledges the necessary information as well as making references to examples that help to explain certain things or perhaps to offer an opposition. Writing. Truss' writing is un-matched. She has a simple technique that includes intelligence and advanced ideas. Never does she attempt to step outside her boundaries and write (...let's say: showy) in a showy way. She is quite reserved, but expresses herself and the truth when necessary. Overall position. Truss stands by herself. She is not afraid to correct those who are incorrect; she is not ashamed to admit her inconsistencies and mistakes. Often non-fiction books take a strong stance and things and don't budge. These stands are commonly outrageous and obviously incorrect in some people's eyes. Truss makes subtle stands for what she believes in, and she believes in the truth. This is an excellent, quick read. A recommended weekend reader.