IF you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.

the elegance and vagaries of punctuation

February 16, 2008

 

despite the erratic trend of my attention span lately, i couldn’t help but flip over a couple of gems from Lynne Truss’s "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" — a lighthearted but informative bible-of-sorts for hapless editors.

i like Lynne Truss’s elegant and incisive way of pointing out the seemingly obvious but too often overlooked items when people rush to express their chaotic thoughts into words.

Here are a few excerpts:

Punctuation marks are the traffic signals that tell us to slow down, notice this, take a detour, and stop.

unconsciously, i find myself nodding in agreement. she attributes this to another writer, but i like the way she pointed it out. For example, consider the following:

The Consequences of Mispunctuation:

  • A woman, without her man, is nothing

  • A woman: without her, man is nothing.

see what i mean? sometimes, it’s funny how a couple of mislaid punctuation marks can change your whole perspective. and here’s another charming tickler for punctuation fans.

  • Charles the First walked and talked half an hour after his head was cut off

huhh? apparently, the answer lies this way:

  • Charles the First walked and talked. Half an hour after, his head was cut off.

 

Posted by onyxx at 8:43 pm | permalink | Add comment

     

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