One of my favorite elementary school teachers was Mrs. Saperstone. Originally from upper-Ohio, she had her work cut out for herself with our class of Southern students in Hendersonville, TN and her biggest pet-peeve was the use of the word “ain’t.”
I’ll always remember her definition of this contraction; “an illiterate contraction” which at the time was backed up by most dictionaries and needless to say, I had to write many papers that repeated endlessly the phrase; ‘I will not use the word ain’t.”
Ms. Saperstone was persnickety and I suppose if she is still teaching she would be proud of the notion that I just finished reading Eats, Shoots and Leaves, the runaway #1 British Bestseller subtitled, ‘The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.” The author, Lynne Truss is a self-described stickler and if her photo on the back with her red magic marker – correcting a shop-keeper’s sign is any indication, she’s no match for Mrs. Saperstone, but it’s a great book to absorb if you’re eager to craft better meaning with your words.
I picked this book up from the bin that read ‘Staff Favorites’ at Barnes and Noble and the back liner has this story;
A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.
“Why?” asked the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
“I’m a panda,” he says, at the door. “Look it up.”
The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.
“Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.”
This cute story is the foundation of this author’s work who urges readers in the era of email and emoticons that punctuation is the most transferable form of meaning in our language and her book is a fun primer for noticing bad punctuation and hopefully, I’ll catch some of my own with a bit more regularity.
Not only is the book witty, it also folds the history and usage of printers marks and although it will probably bore most people (beware of discussing semi-colons in mixed company) you’re treated to a pantheon of characters from St. Jerome who who translated the bible in the 4th century and the venetian printer Aldus Manutuis who she lusts – “kicking myself that I never volunteered to have his babies as he was the creators of standardized punctuation.”
Tross states that punctuation is 2/3 rules and 1/3 personal preferences. I discussed this with Don Fenley, editor the other day and he shared with me over his many years in journalism that he has experienced episodes where editors almost came to blows over the use of commas!
The author describes punctuation as ‘the musical notes of language.’ She’s right too. Like a sheet of music with staffing, rests, repeats, fortissimos and pianissimos, language would be rather dull without the full stop, commas, semi-colons, colons, ellipse, question marks and let’s not forget the exclamation!
Tross says this in her book:
In the family of punctuation, where the full stop is daddy ad the comma is mummy, and the semi-colon quietly practices the piano with crossed hands, the exclamation mark is the big-attention-deficit brother who gets overexcited and breaks things and laughs loudly.
Eats, Shoots and Leaves is a fun read. It’s not a long book (204 pages) and what appears boring on the outside (punctuation), actually turns out to be quite enjoyable. More importantly, the discussion of the various rules and preferences about punctuation is good for creating a ‘sixth sense’ about the marks we use to either separate or terminate our thoughts.
It’s obvious the Internet is bringing back an outpouring of writers. Several friends who are classroom teachers point out that they can always find the bloggers in the classrooms. They’re the ones who have no trouble spewing out pages and pages of dialog.
The technology is changing the way we use the language though – obvious in the disorganized and informal manner of most email and the acronyms and the emoticons writers use to express themselves. In this age of ‘graphic frivolity,’ this book is a perfect companion for anyone interested in improving their skills.
Finally, one of my favorite comments in this book is about reading books in general. I’ve developed a obsessive relationship with most of the authors in my library and although I read a lot of material on the Internet today, Tross makes a great point about the differences between reading the screen and reading a book.
Not only is the very act different (scrolling versus turning pages), Tross continues;
Picking up a book entails an active pursuit of understanding. Holding the book, we are aware of posterity and continuity. Knowing that the printed word is always edited, typeset and proof-read before it reaches us, we appreciate its literary authority.
Thank goodness for credibility!
I’m convinced that good punctuation is the filter for clear thought. After 21 years in the newspaper business, this book and the discussions with my colleagues has given me a passion for writing and I need a lot of work too and that’s why this book is a good addition to my bookshelf.