Eats, Shoots & Leaves

infobox Book |
name = Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation


image_caption =
author = Lynne Truss
country = United Kingdom
language = English
cover_artist =
subject = English grammar
genre = Non-fiction
publisher = Profile Books
pub_date = November 6, 2003
media_type = Print (Hardcover)
pages = 228 pp.
isbn = ISBN 1-86197-612-7

"Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" is a non-fiction book written by Lynne Truss, the former host of the BBC's "Cutting a Dash" radio program. In the book, published in 2003, Truss bemoans the state of punctuation in the United Kingdom and the United States and describes how rules are being relaxed in today's society. Her goal is to remind readers of the importance of punctuation in the English language by mixing humour and instruction.Truss dedicates the book "to the memory of the striking Bolshevik printers of St. Petersburg who, in 1905, demanded to be paid the same rate for punctuation marks as for letters, and thereby directly precipitated the first Russian Revolution."

Overview

There is one chapter each on apostrophes and on commas; one on semicolons and colons; one on exclamation marks, question marks, and quotation marks, italic type, dashes, brackets, ellipses, and emoticons; and one on hyphens. Truss touches on varied aspects of the history of punctuation and includes many anecdotes, which add another dimension to her explanations of grammatical rules. In the book's final chapter, she explains the importance of maintaining punctuation rules and addresses the damaging effects of e-mail and the Internet on punctuation.

Irish-American author Frank McCourt, author of "Angela's Ashes", wrote the foreword to the U.S. edition of "Eats, Shoots & Leaves". In keeping with the general lighthearted tone of the book, he praises Truss for bringing life back into the art of punctuation, adding, "If Lynne Truss were Roman Catholic I'd nominate her for sainthood."

The book was a huge commercial success. In 2004, the U.S. edition became a "New York Times" bestseller. Contrary to usual publishing convention, the U.S. edition of the book left the original British conventions intact.

Title

The title of the book is an amphibology, a verbal fallacy arising from an ambiguous grammatical construction, and derived from a joke on bad punctuation:

quote|A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons.

'Why?' asks the confused, surviving waiter amidst the carnage, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

'Well, I'm a panda', he says, at the door. 'Look it up.'

The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation. 'Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.'

Criticism

In a 2004 review, Louis Menand of "The New Yorker" pointed out several punctuation errors in the book, including one in the dedication, and wrote that "an Englishwoman lecturing Americans on semicolons is a little like an American lecturing the French on sauces. Some of Truss's departures from punctuation norms are just British laxness." [Bad Comma: Lynne Truss's strange grammar by Louis Menand, " [http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/06/28/040628crbo_books1 The New Yorker] ", 28 June 2004.] Truss's book is also one of the "bête noires" of the popular linguistics blog Language Log. [ [http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/ Language Log] . For a list of posts referring to Truss, see [http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/moveabletype/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=2&search=Lynne+Truss this page] .]

A parody of "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" titled "Eats, Shites & Leaves: Crap English and How to Use it", by "A. Parody", was published in Great Britain by Michael O'Meara Books Limited in 2004. [ [http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1843170981 Amazon.co.uk: Eats, Shites & Leaves: Crap English and How to Use It: Antal Parody: Books ] ]

In "The Fight for English: How language pundits ate, shot and left" (OUP 2006), linguist David Crystal analyses the linguistic purism of Truss and other writers down the ages. [ [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1863807,00.html "Author takes on the queen of commas"] , David Smith, "The Observer" Sunday 3 September 2006]

In 2006, English lecturer Nicholas Waters released "Eats, Roots & Leaves", criticising the "grammar fascists" who "want to stop the language moving into the 21st century." [ [http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/content/News/story.aspx?brand=ENOnline&category=News&tBrand=enonline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED16%20Nov%202006%2008%3A51%3A54%3A233 "Taking on Grammar Fascists"] ] [ [http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/mostpopular.var.1578978.mostviewed.war_of_words.php War Of Words (from Bournemouth Echo) ] ]

Editions

*Lynne Truss, "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" (London: Profile Books, 2003) ISBN 1-86197-612-7 (UK hardcover)
*Lynne Truss, "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" (New York: Gotham Books, 2004) ISBN 1-59240-087-6 (US hardcover)
*Lynne Truss, "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" (London: Profile Books, 2004) ISBN 1-86197-612-7 (Paperback, Special Indian Edition)

ee also

*Standard English
*Linguistic prescription

References

External links

* [http://eatsshootsandleaves.com Official site]
* [http://eatsshootsandleaves.com/eslex.html Excerpt: "Introduction – The Seventh Sense"]