Subject: Commas, etc.

From: "Barbara B. Fuller" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 08:48:58 -0400

Dear Participants in the Grammar Wars:

For your information, the #3 book in the Hardcover Nonfiction category of 
the New York Times Best-Seller List deals with the subject of 
punctuation.  The title of the book is "Eats, Shoots and Leaves," and it 
was written by Lynne Truss.  (Please note the comma *inside* the quotation 
mark :-)

The title is indicative of the message of the book.  Specifically, if one 
includes the comma after the word "Eats," then the words evoke a bar room 
brawl.  If one removes the comma after the word "Eats," then the words 
might be appropriate in a description of a panda.

Regards,

Barbara

------------------------------------------------
Barbara B. Fuller
Acting Executive Director
Internet Engineering Task Force

Natick, Massachusetts Office:

Phone: +1-508-650-4020
Fax:     +1-508-650-4639

Reston, Virginia Office:

Phone: +1-703-620-9053
Fax:     +1-703-620-9071

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From: Brian E Carpenter <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2004 11:22:35 +0200

There was a review, of this book in the New Yorker, recently, that
attacked it quite, vigorously for being full of punctuation, errors.

    Brian

Barbara B. Fuller wrote:
> For your information, the #3 book in the Hardcover Nonfiction category 
> of the New York Times Best-Seller List deals with the subject of 
> was written by Lynne Truss.  (Please note the comma *inside* the 
> quotation mark :-)
> 
> The title is indicative of the message of the book.  Specifically, if 
> one includes the comma after the word "Eats," then the words evoke a bar 
> room brawl.  If one removes the comma after the word "Eats," then the 
> words might be appropriate in a description of a panda.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Barbara
>

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From: Paul Hoffman / VPNC <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2004 09:17:47 -0700

>attacked it quite, vigorously for being full of punctuation, errors.

So now we can become armchair grammarians when we're not being 
armchair lawyers? Works for me.

--Paul Hoffman, Director
--VPN Consortium

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From: "Barbara B. Fuller" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 09:21:09 -0400

Hi Brian:

I'm certainly not an expert in grammar or punctuation, and the review in 
the New Yorker may very well be accurate.  As a matter of fact, in my 
opinion (for what it's worth :-), the title of the book would be clearer if 
there were a comma after the word "Shoots."

"Eats, Shoots, and Leaves"

vs.

"Eats, Shoots and Leaves"

However, the book does contain some amusing examples of the role of 
punctuation in determining meaning.  Here is another one:

"A woman without her man is nothing."

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

Same words, different punctuation, opposite meaning.

...and this was really the only point of my note.

Cheers!!

Barbara
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