Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

FORMAL REFERENCE:
Truss, Lynne. 2003. Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. New York: Penguin.

RELEVANT SECTIONS: “Cutting a Dash” chapter: pp 132-139

SUMMARY:

Eats, Shoots & Leaves is a mass-market book about punctuation in the English language. While conversationally written, the book is actually quite learned and content-filled.

The section on exclamation marks is a great overview, noting the origin, early use, and modern function and effect as well as including mentions of how, strangely, some sticklers frown upon the use of exclamation marks in many, if not all, circumstances.

Apparently, the mark was introduced by humanist printers in the 15^th century as “the note of admiration.” As in, “How pretty you are!” or, “The sun is so bright!” Today, it is used with more variety, though sometimes to chagrin: it is “unignorable and hopelessly heavy-handed”; it is hard to get right.

The author relates a good point when she says, “I can’t help thinking, in its defence, that our system of punctuation is limited enough already without dismissing half of it as rubbish.”

Truss notes eight uses of the mark: interjections, to salute or invoke, to exclaim or admire, for added drama, to emphasize, or to “deflect potential misunderstanding of irony” as in, “I don’t mean it!”

Finally, the author notes the exclamation mark’s use in humor and jokes as “the equivalent of canned laughter.” Interesting.

ASSESSMENT:
This is not a scholarly source, but the author most certainly is: she graduated with a first-class honors degree in English Language and Literature from University College London and has been an editor since 1978. She also hosts a punctuation show on BBC Radio 4; she most certainly knows what she is talking about.

Much of the material could be considered opinion, but it does seem reasonable and expected based on common understandings of the role of exclamation marks in my experience.

REFLECTION:

This book contains eminently quotable material for the introduction to the research proposal. Some of the points, such as how grammarians warn off its use, will make a good argument for further investigation.

KEYWORDS AND LABELS:

introduction, history, overview, dismissal, argument