Eats, Shoots and Leaves

Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynn Truss is a delightful and humorous book about punctuation. Any person who wants to write English must read Eats, Shoots and Leaves. Sadly, too many people these days do not care to learn how to punctuate properly. Worse yet, some people make up their own rules. They place commas here and there as they please and feel.

What is the big deal about punctuation? Well, just one little comma can change the meaning of a sentence. Let's take the clever title of this book as an example. What is the difference between "eats shoots and leaves" and "eats, shoots and leaves?" Think of it this way. A panda eats shoots and leaves. A hunter eats, shoots and leaves. See the difference? One little comma can make a world of difference.

Still unconvinced? Check out this article which writes, "A contract dispute in Canada centers on what's being called a million-dollar comma. Canada's telecommunications regulator has decided that a misplaced comma in a contract concerning telephone poles will allow a company to save an estimated $2 million."

If you were the person who misplaced that 2 million dollar comma, how would you feel now?

We all know that punctuation is not necessary a fun subject; however, Ms.Truss' book is surprisingly joyful to read. Truss writes, "If there is one less to be learned from this book, it is that there is never a dull moment in the world of punctuation." She is right. In her book, you will read about all the exciting and crazy moments of commas and apostrophes. I had more fun learning about punctuation from reading this book than the two years I spent in rhetoric classes during my college years - wait, did I misplace a comma in this blog entry?