Spring Break
'Eats, Shoots, and Leaves' is grammar lover's bible
Jeremy Carmona
Issue date: 11/28/07 Section: Entertainment
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11/28/07 - For fanatics of the world of punctuation, Lynne Truss has now become the patron saint of proper English, creating somewhat of a biblical text for the masses to follow.
"Eats, Shoots and & Leaves" takes its title from a punctuation joke. A panda walks into a café, has a sandwich, pulls out a gun, shoots into the air and then leaves. As the panda walks towards the door to leave, a waiter asks the panda why it did that.
The panda tosses him a badly punctuated wildlife manual and says, "I'm a panda. Look it up." He does and finds: "Panda: Large black and white bear like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."
Those who get the joke are the ones in the congregation of Truss.
Truss, a writer and journalist for six years, started out as a literary editor and now writes for The London Times. She won Columnist of the Year for her work for Women's Journal and her experience shines brightly in this book.
Truss succeeds at her goal of writing a book designed for those "who love punctuation and don't like to see it mucked about with" by giving overviews of the most commonly misused marks in punctuation.
Truss encouraged people with their own personal punctuation horror stories to write letters demonstrating the ignorance of the British people. These letters helped to comprise "The Tractable Apostrophe" chapter, which introduced a number of incorrect uses of the punctuation mark such as, "Mens toilets," "Britains biggest junction," and "Citizens Advice Bureau."
Being the true grammar stickler that she is, Truss not only admits her love for punctuation by admitting that she changes incorrect signs while walking down the street ("Two Weeks Notice" and "Come inside for CD's, Video's, DVD's and Book's) but gives readers insight on the history of punctuation.
She says that punctuation is a product of the age of printing and that it was a Venetian printer Aldus Manutius (1450-1515) who started to standardize punctuation practices.
"Eats, Shoots and & Leaves" takes its title from a punctuation joke. A panda walks into a café, has a sandwich, pulls out a gun, shoots into the air and then leaves. As the panda walks towards the door to leave, a waiter asks the panda why it did that.
The panda tosses him a badly punctuated wildlife manual and says, "I'm a panda. Look it up." He does and finds: "Panda: Large black and white bear like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."
Those who get the joke are the ones in the congregation of Truss.
Truss, a writer and journalist for six years, started out as a literary editor and now writes for The London Times. She won Columnist of the Year for her work for Women's Journal and her experience shines brightly in this book.
Truss succeeds at her goal of writing a book designed for those "who love punctuation and don't like to see it mucked about with" by giving overviews of the most commonly misused marks in punctuation.
Truss encouraged people with their own personal punctuation horror stories to write letters demonstrating the ignorance of the British people. These letters helped to comprise "The Tractable Apostrophe" chapter, which introduced a number of incorrect uses of the punctuation mark such as, "Mens toilets," "Britains biggest junction," and "Citizens Advice Bureau."
Being the true grammar stickler that she is, Truss not only admits her love for punctuation by admitting that she changes incorrect signs while walking down the street ("Two Weeks Notice" and "Come inside for CD's, Video's, DVD's and Book's) but gives readers insight on the history of punctuation.
She says that punctuation is a product of the age of printing and that it was a Venetian printer Aldus Manutius (1450-1515) who started to standardize punctuation practices.
