[PW] Re: Punctuation

[Franco, Adrienne]

This was the basis for the book "Eats Shoots and Leaves : the zero
tolerance approach to punctuation" by Lynne Truss.

The title of the book is from a similar example -- using slight
differences in punctuation changes the entire meaning of the sentence.

Truss uses the example of a panda walking into a library, eating and
sandwich, shooting a bow and arrow and then leaves.  The panda shows the
librarian an entry about pandas in a reference book which says "eats,
shoots and leaves".

Removing the misplaced comma, we can see the intended meaning -- about
the pandas diet -- a panda "eats shoots and leaves".

Her book also refers to "Slow, children crossing" vs. "Slow children
crossing".

Adrienne Franco / Iona College Libraries / New Rochelle, NY  10801

-----Original Message-----
From: project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org
[mailto:project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org] On Behalf Of
Robin Lee
Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 8:10 PM
To: list at project-wombat.org
Subject: [PW] Punctuation

 "The old story about the class asked to punctuate the sentence 'Woman
without her man is useless' - all the women wrote 'Woman, without her,
man is useless' and all the men 'Woman, without her man, is useless' -
is a clear illustration of the difficulty of conveying meaning if you
don't punctuate correctly".
(http://townsvillebulletin.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,19264787
%255E24192,00.html)
Robin
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