Eats, Shoots & Leaves (2003) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

People edit see section history

• Lynne Truss: The author and narrator of the book. She is opinionated and resolute about her approach to punctuation.
• Ross: Add a description of this character.
• Shaw
• Perekladin
• Tom Jones
• Gertrude Stein
• Elton John: He rocks!

Quotes edit see section history

• “The big final rule for the comma is one that you won't find in any books by grammarians. It is quite easy to remember, however. The rule is: don't use commas like a stupid person.”

• “Assuming a sentence rises into the air with the initial capital letter and lands with a soft-ish bumb at the full stop, the humble comma can keep the sentence aloft all right, like this, UP, for hours if necessary, UP, like this, UP, sort-of bouncing, and then falling down, and then UP it goes again, assuming you have enough additional things to say, although in the end you may run out of ideas and then you have to roll along the ground with no commas at all until some sort of surface resistance takes over and you run out of steam anyway and then eventually with the help of three dots ... you stop.”

• “semicolons are dangerously habit-forming.”

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• punctuation is “a courtesy designed to help readers to understand a story without stumbling”.

  Highlighted by 79 Kindle customers

• A cat has claws at the ends of its paws. A comma’s a pause at the end of a clause.

  Highlighted by 77 Kindle customers

• The reason to stand up for punctuation is that without it there is no reliable way of communicating meaning. Punctuation herds words together, keeps others apart. Punctuation directs you how to read, in the way musical notation directs a musician how to play.

  Highlighted by 68 Kindle customers

• A woman, without her man, is nothing. A woman: without her, man is nothing.

  Highlighted by 58 Kindle customers

• Meanwhile, words that must not be used to join two sentences together with a comma are however and nevertheless,

  Highlighted by 52 Kindle customers

• The rule here is that the comma is correct if it can be replaced by the word and or or.

  Highlighted by 49 Kindle customers

• On the page, punctuation performs its grammatical function, but in the mind of the reader it does more than that. It tells the reader how to hum the tune.

  Highlighted by 46 Kindle customers

• A colon is nearly always preceded by a complete sentence, and in its simplest usage it rather theatrically announces what is to come.

  Highlighted by 45 Kindle customers

• In Mind the Stop Carey defines punctuation as being governed “two-thirds by rule and one-third by personal taste”.

  Highlighted by 37 Kindle customers

• 6 It features in Irish names such as O’Neill and O’Casey: Again the theory that this is a simple contraction – this time of “of” (as in John o’ Gaunt) – is pure woolly misconception. Not a lot of people know this, but the “O” in Irish names is an anglicisation of “ua”, meaning grandson.

  Highlighted by 26 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• England
• Argentina
• America
• London

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Lynne Truss (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Frank McCourt (Foreword)
2. Profile Books (Publisher)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• New York Times Bestseller (2004)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PE1450 .T753 2008
• Dewey: 428.2

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Add a note to help parents select a book for a child.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Reference › Writing › Writing Skills
• Books › Reference › Words & Language › Grammar
• Books › Entertainment › Humor › Essays
• Books › Nonfiction › Education
• Books › Professional & Technical › Education

Books Influenced by This Book edit see section history

Books That Cite This Book edit see section history