Mr. Grammar
I haven't had a chance to read this book, but I
would like to read it sometime: a book for the general public about grammar!
Amazing! Even more amazing is that it has remained a top 10 seller for many
months!
Friday, October 22,
2004
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
By Lynne Truss
Mr. Grammar
When I taught English as a Second Language for international students wanting to enter the university, my colleagues called me something like Mr. Grammar because I was the only teacher who LOVED teaching grammar. On my undergraduate college entrance exam (the ACT), my percentile ranking was 99 on the grammar section. So you can imagine I was delighted to learn that there is a top-selling book out now about proper punctuation: Eats, Shoots & Leaves. In a review of the book, I read a quote that touched on one of my pet peeves.
A self-professed "stickler," Truss [the author] recommends that anyone putting an apostrophe in a possessive "its" -- as in "the dog chewed it's bone" -- should be struck by lightning and chopped to bits.
I say, YEAH, I love it! I don't know why Americans (and apparently Brits too--this is a British book) have so much trouble with apostrophes. The rules are quite simple:
1) Singular possessive -- apostrophe before the S
2) Plural possessive -- apostrophe after the S
3) Plural -- NO APOSTROPHE!
With singular names ending in S, there are two recognized proper forms -- apostrophe S or just an apostrophe after the S. And the word "it" is an exception, since the apostrophe S version is the contraction for "it is" and the possessive does not use an apostrophe but rather is simply "its." It's an exception, but it's such a common word, it shouldn't be so hard to remember. The one that really drives me nuts, though, is when people put an apostrophe in a simple plural word! Other times, when people leave out apostrophes in plurals, sometimes the meaning of their sentence is confusing because I can't immediately tell whether they mean simple plural or plural possessive.
Anyway, I'm glad to see a book out about punctuation. I don't have the book yet, but I hope to get it.
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
By Lynne Truss
Mr. Grammar
When I taught English as a Second Language for international students wanting to enter the university, my colleagues called me something like Mr. Grammar because I was the only teacher who LOVED teaching grammar. On my undergraduate college entrance exam (the ACT), my percentile ranking was 99 on the grammar section. So you can imagine I was delighted to learn that there is a top-selling book out now about proper punctuation: Eats, Shoots & Leaves. In a review of the book, I read a quote that touched on one of my pet peeves.
A self-professed "stickler," Truss [the author] recommends that anyone putting an apostrophe in a possessive "its" -- as in "the dog chewed it's bone" -- should be struck by lightning and chopped to bits.
I say, YEAH, I love it! I don't know why Americans (and apparently Brits too--this is a British book) have so much trouble with apostrophes. The rules are quite simple:
1) Singular possessive -- apostrophe before the S
2) Plural possessive -- apostrophe after the S
3) Plural -- NO APOSTROPHE!
With singular names ending in S, there are two recognized proper forms -- apostrophe S or just an apostrophe after the S. And the word "it" is an exception, since the apostrophe S version is the contraction for "it is" and the possessive does not use an apostrophe but rather is simply "its." It's an exception, but it's such a common word, it shouldn't be so hard to remember. The one that really drives me nuts, though, is when people put an apostrophe in a simple plural word! Other times, when people leave out apostrophes in plurals, sometimes the meaning of their sentence is confusing because I can't immediately tell whether they mean simple plural or plural possessive.
Anyway, I'm glad to see a book out about punctuation. I don't have the book yet, but I hope to get it.
Posted: Fri - October 22, 2004 at 12:01 AM
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