A punctuation book you must read

[Head Mutant]

I'm visiting my folks in Indianapolis, cicada capital of the midwest, and I found my mom (the other writer in our family) reading a book on punctuation. I thought, man, that's got to be boring, so I picked it up and have been reading it obsessively ever since. Why? It's a vastly funny and interesting little book.

It's called "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" (based off of the panda joke) by an English lady named Lynne Truss. She's absolutely driven to promote proper punctuation, to the point where she stood outside of a movie theater with an apostraphe on a stick to properly punctuate the title of Two Weeks Notice (which should've been Two Weeks' Notice).

You'd never think this sort of subject matter would be funny, but it is. Truss has a Dave Barry-ish dementia to her writing, and I'm laughing my way through this book:

"But we had evidently stumbled into Grammar Geek Alley, and there was nothing we could do. 'Of course I punctuate my text messages, I did A-level English,' one young man explained, with a look of scorn. Evidently an A level in English is a sacred trust, like something out of Lord of the Rings. You must go forth with your A level and protect the English language with your bow of elfin gold."

It's also explaining to me some of the nuances of how British people write versus us Americans. That helps me for when I'm editing Rich's review and upset for the fiftieth time why the boy never puts a period after Mr or the like.

So, good book, check it out, get a laugh and learn something. And oh yeah, that comma before the and in the previous sentence? Optional. Word.

[puggyd]

I'm a big fan of "Commas are our friends". Worth it for the title alone.

[jenfrazer]

Another excellent and fun style guide is Lapsing Into a Comma, by Washington Post copy editor Bill Walsh. It's based off his blog writings at www.theslot.com.

[DarthToad]

Yeah, I heard about that book. It sounds really good. Oh, and the joke...

A panda walks into a bar, orders a sandwhich, and shoots someone. The bartender asks him what he did that for, and the panda says "I'm a panda, look me up in the dictionary," and then leaves. The bartender looks "panda" up in the dictionary, and it says:

Panda (n) - Asiastic mammal related to the bear. Eats shoots and leaves.

[DocD83]

She's absolutely driven to promote proper punctuation, to the point where she stood outside of a movie theater with an apostraphe on a stick to properly punctuate the title of Two Weeks Notice (which should've been Two Weeks' Notice).

I heard about the stink that was raised over that movie title, but I never bought it. The title doesn't need the apostrophe. With the apostrophe, the "weeks" becomes possesive (the "notice" being owned by the two weeks), but without the apostrophe the phrase is a number and a noun similar to "two dozen roses." You don't say "two dozen's roses," do you? Unless you're referring to the roses owned by two dozen people or something.

So, good book, check it out, get a laugh and learn something. And oh yeah, that comma before the and in the previous sentence? Optional. Word.

Psst! Justin, you need to put that last "and" in quotes. Just like that.

[Head Mutant]

Take it up with her -- but I think she's right on this one:

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Everywhere one looks, there are signs of ignorance and indifference. What about that film Two Weeks Notice? Guaranteed to give sticklers a very nasty turn, that was – its posters slung along the sides of buses in letters four feet tall, with no apostrophe in sight. I remember, at the start of the Two Weeks Notice publicity campaign in the spring of 2003, emerging cheerfully from Victoria Station (was I whistling?) and stopping dead in my tracks with my fingers in my mouth. Where was the apostrophe? Surely there should be an apostrophe on that bus? If it were "one month's notice" there would be an apostrophe (I reasoned); yes, and if it were "one week's notice" there would be an apostrophe. Therefore "two weeks' notice" requires an apostrophe! Buses that I should have caught (the 73; two 38s) sailed off up Buckingham Palace Road while I communed thus at length with my inner stickler, unable to move or, indeed, regain any sense of perspective.

[DocD83]

Got her e-mail address?

[pfrsue]

On a more grammatical whoopsie note, a few years ago all the license plates in Pennsylvania were stamped with the motto: "You've got a friend in Pennsylvania". It was several years before they realized that "You have got" is incredibly poor English. They've since been replaced.

[pythianlegume]

I love the part where she talks about communicating with an American pen pal, in ink, on green paper, and using the word "desultory." It sounds like something I would have done, circa age 12, just to make myself sound smart and pompous.

[awesomecolin]

Proper punctuation? I have a hard enough time spelling without making mistakes.