Eats, Shoots & Leaves

Author: Lynne Truss
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101218290
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 119

Book Description
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.

Eats MORE, Shoots & Leaves

Author: Lynne Truss
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1984815741
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 66

Book Description
Laugh your way to punctuation perfection with this pocket-sized paperback compendium of the hilariously illustrated #1 New York Times bestselling series. Clever side-by-side illustrations show how punctuation placement makes a huge difference in the meaning of a sentence. Imagine this without the middle period and the comma: “The king walked and talked. A half hour after, his head was cut off.” Oh no—a beheaded king that can still walk and talk! You might want to eat a huge hot dog, but a huge, hot dog would run away pretty quickly if you tried to take a bite out of him. Scenes from all three of Lynne Truss and Bonnie Timmons’s best-selling punctuation picture books (Eats, Shoots & Leaves, The Girl's Like Spaghetti, and Twenty-Odd Ducks) highlight the important jobs of commas, apostrophes, hyphens, quotation marks, and more in this humorous punctuation primer. “Wordplay or ‘grammarplay’ at its finest.” —School Library Journal

Can You Eat, Shoot and Leave? (Workbook)

Author: Clare Dignall
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0007461364
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 184

Book Description
The punctuation workout for sticklers and rookies alike.

Talk to the Hand

Author: Lynne Truss
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101216727
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Book Description
"Talk to the hand, ’cause the face ain’t listening," the saying goes. When did the world stop wanting to hear? When did society become so thoughtless? It’s a topic that has been simmering for years, and Lynne Truss says it’s now reached the boiling point. Taking on the boorish behavior that for some has become a point of pride, Talk to the Hand is a rallying cry for courtesy. Like Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Talk to the Hand is not a stuffy guidebook, and is sure to inspire spirited conversation. Why hasn’t your nephew ever thanked you for your carefully selected gift? What makes your contractor think it’s fine to snub you in the midst of a major renovation? Why do crowds spawn selfishness? What accounts for the appalling treatment you receive in stores (if you’re lucky enough to get a clerk’s attention at all)? Most important, what will it take to roll back a culture that applauds those who are disrespectful? In a recent U.S. survey, 79 percent of adults said that lack of courtesy was a serious problem. For anyone who’s fed up with the brutality inflicted by modern manners (or lack thereof), Talk to the Hand is a colorful call to arms—from the wittiest defender of the civilized world.

The Girl's Like Spaghetti

Author: Lynne Truss
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0399247068
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 34

Book Description
A comanion to the New York Times #1 best-seller Eats, Shoots & Leaves, this is punctuation play at its finest! Just as the use of commas was hilariously demystified in Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference!, now Lynne Truss and Bonnie Timmons put their talents together to do the same for apostrophes. Everyone needs to know where to put an apostrophe to make a word plural or possessive (Are those sticky things your brother's or your brothers?) and leaving one out of a contraction can give someone the completely wrong impression (Were here to help you). Full of silly scenes that show how apostrophes make a difference, too, this is another picture book that will elicit bales of laughter and better punctuation from all who read it. A New York Times Bestseller Parents’ Choice Silver Honor Winner

Twenty-Odd Ducks

Author: Lynne Truss
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0399250581
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 34

Book Description
Language play iincludes many punctuation marks in this companion to the New York Times #1 bestseller Eats, Shoots & Leaves! Commas and apostrophes aren't the only punctuation marks that can cause big trouble if they're put in the wrong place. “Twenty-odd ducks” is an estimate of how many are waddling by, but “twenty odd ducks” would not only be a big group, but they’d look very strange! Imagine this without the middle period and the comma: “The king walked and talked. A half hour after, his head was cut off.” Oh no—a beheaded king that can still walk and talk! Truss and Timmons put hyphens, parentheses, quotation marks, periods, and more in the spotlight, with silly scenes showing how which marks you choose and where you put them can cause hilarious mix-ups.

Pause and Effect

Author: M.B. Parkes
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351912461
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 444

Book Description
From its publication in 1992 Pause and Effect has become a cornerstone of the study of punctuation across the world. Described as 'magisterial' by Lynne Truss in her best-selling Eats, Shoots and Leaves, this book has stimulated interest and scholarly debates among writers, literary critics, philosophers, linguists, rhetoricians, palaeographers and all those who study the use of language. To celebrate this extraordinary achievement, Pause and Effect has been republished in September 2008, coinciding with the publication of the author's new work, Their Hands Before Our Eyes. The first part of Pause and Effect identifies the graphic symbols of punctuation and deals with their history. It covers the antecedents of the repertory of symbols, as well as the ways in which the repertory was refined and augmented with new symbols to meet changing requirements. The second part offers a short general account of the principal influences which have contributed to the ways in which the symbols have been applied in texts, focusing on the evidence of the practice itself rather than on theorists. The treatment enables the reader to compare usages in different periods, and to isolate the principles which underlie the use of punctuation in all periods. The examples and plates which are at the core of the book provide the reader with an opportunity to test the author's observations. The examples are taken from a wide range of literary texts from different periods and languages. Latin texts are accompanied by English translation intended to illustrate the use of punctuation in the originals in so far as this is possible.

Eats, Shites & Leaves

Author: A. Parody
Publisher: Michael O'Mara Books
ISBN: 1782432892
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 143

Book Description
A wittily informative insight into how the English language can be used and abused in the twenty-first century.

The Fight for English

Author: David Crystal
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019158746X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 252

Book Description
Lynne Truss's 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' injected new life into the long-standing arguments over rights and wrongs in English usage. Now David Crystal brings together his own distinctive style and unique expertise to provide the first thorough-going assessment of the ongoing debate. With a lively, humorous, and accessible approach, Crystal charts the battles past and present, illustrating the characters and attitudes involved from a wide range of written sources. He combines a chronological survey of key influences in the area of usage with discussion of particular themes such as punctuation, spelling, and pronunciation. And he looks ahead to the future in the context of recent education policy shifts. A positive and compelling case is made for variation in usage of English based on appropriateness of situation, arguing that 'zero tolerance' in relation to language is a profoundly flawed approach. Crystal offers an original and authoritative counter-argument to the prescriptivist agenda that has been expounded in many accounts of English usage over the years. The Fight for English is the book that everyone concerned with English usage has been eagerly awaiting.

Have You Eaten Grandma?

Author: Gyles Brandreth
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0241352657
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Book Description
The go-to good English guide from the grammar guru himself, Gyles Brandreth . . . __________ Why, like, does everyone keep saying 'like'? Why do apostrophe's keep turning up in the wrong place? Why do we get confused when using foreign phrases - and vice versa? Is it 'may be' or 'maybe'? Should it be 'past' or 'passed'? Is it 'referenda' or 'referendums'? FFS, what's happening to our language!? Our language is changing, literacy levels are dwindling and our grasp of grammar is at crisis point, so you wouldn't be alone in thinking WTF! But do not despair, Have You Eaten Grandma? is here: Gyles Brandreth's definitive (and hilarious) guide to punctuation, spelling, and good English for the twenty-first century. Without hesitation or repetition (and just a touch of deviation) Gyles, the Just A Minute regular and self-confessed grammar guru, skewers the linguistic horrors of our time, tells us where we've been going wrong (and why), and reveals his tips and tricks to ensure that, in future, we make fewer (rather than 'less') mistakes. End of. (Is 'End of' alright? Is 'alright' all right? You'll find out right here . . . )