As anyone who has walked with me for any length of time might know, I can be an annoyingly picky grammarian when I choose to be. It's not that I'm particularly adept at grammar (as some of the writing on this weblog might attest) but I have a hard time keeping my snickering to myself when I see blatant grammatical errors on posters, on signs, or in books.
Well, if you share this sometimes annoying personality trait, you'll enjoy Lynn Travers's Eats, Shoots & Leaves. Fortunately, Travers keeps the self-righteousness to a minimum in a fantastic book that laments the poor state of grammar in our society and explains grammatical basics to help us all improve our grammar. Her grammatical advice is both clear and practical. In many instances, she explains both sides of an issue with the understanding that either option could be considered acceptable use.
Her description of the debate over the use of the Oxford comma (the last comma in "apples, oranges, and bananas") was particularly enlightening. I've always been taught that this was commonly used in modern writing but Travers explains the historical case for and against its use.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who writes anything for publication (yes, that includes webloggers). It's full of sound practical advice that will be of immediate use even if you consider yourself fairly handy with words.
* Now that I've written this review, I'm sure that there are a zillion grammatical faults in this post that I won't locate no matter how diligently I edit. Please go easy on me!
Comments
John Boylan - October 4, 2004 8:17 am
On matters of grammar and the use of words I often turn to Fowler's Modern Usage (it has a good section on the Oxford Comma).
Reading Fowler's is invariably a humbling experience for me though. My worst moment was finding that a word I often spell incorrectly was accompanied by the following entry: "Poor spellers often incorrectly write the word as ...". I can't include the word in this post for the shame.
filmgoerjuan - October 4, 2004 5:25 pm
I seem to recall reading an article on the web debunking Ms. Truss's book as using many of the most horrible grammatical errors possible herself. Google is not aiding me in my search for this, nor is searching all the likeliest sources.
Does anyone else remember seeing this?
Daniel Burka - October 4, 2004 6:20 pm
filmgoerjuan: I think you're likely referring to this article from The New Yorker. While the author is likely correct in debunking some of the grammatical rules in Truss's book, her basic argument is that one should care about basic grammar and that there is a lot of vaguary in the rules, which she attempts to explain. I don't think she's attempting to replace grammatical guides (such as Fowler's Modern Usage mentioned above) but to spark entertaining and much-needed debate about grammar. In this, she is successful.
John Boylan - October 5, 2004 9:25 am
I think books like Eats, Shoots & Leaves and Fowler's demonstrate that language is a living, breathing, evolving thing. The pleasure is in learning how it has changed over time.
There will always be disagreements over grammar and proper use of language, but if you know something of the history of these things you can make wiser choices.
m - October 5, 2004 9:27 pm
I believe it should be: "It's full of sound, practical advice"
Matthew - October 10, 2004 9:55 pm
My brother just bought this very book and I intend on reading it after him. I too have wondered about the Oxford comma and feared in the past I was fudging the use of it. Then there's apostrophes...
Del - October 13, 2004 6:08 pm
I admit to quite enjoying the book, but was a bit upset that she saw fit to "clean" up the joke that provides the title. It's good long time ago that I remember hearing it originally and it was a lfair bit dirtier than the sanitised version she uses.
Still, good book.