Eats, shoots & leaves : the zero tolerance approach to punctuation / Lynne Truss.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Truss, Lynne.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--Punctuation.

English language.

Physical Description:

xxvii, 209 pages ; 20 cm

Other Title:

Eats, shoots, and leaves

Place of Publication:

New York : Gotham Books, 2004.

Summary:

We all know the basics of punctuation. Or do we? A look at most neighborhood signage tells a different story. Through sloppy usage and low standards on the internet, in email, and now text messages, we have made proper punctuation an endangered species. In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, former editor Lynne Truss dares to say, in her delightfully urbane, witty, and very English way, that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful and necessary things they are. This is a book for people who love punctuation and get upset when it is mishandled. From the invention of the question mark in the time of Charlemagne to George Orwell shunning the semicolon, this lively history makes a powerful case for the preservation of a system of printing conventions that is much too subtle to be mucked about with.

Contents:

Foreword

Frank McCourt

Publisher's note

Preface

Introduction: Seventh sense

Tractable apostrophe

That'll do, comma

Airs and graces

Cutting a dash

Little used punctuation mark

Merely conventional signs

Bibliography.

Notes:

Originally published in Great Britain in 2003 by Profile Books.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 205-209).

ISBN:

1592400876

9781592400874

OCLC:

54685268