Richard Lederer is the author of more than thirty books on the English language, including Anguished English, A Man of My Words, and Word Wizard. His syndicated column, "Looking at Language," appears in newspapers and magazines nationwide and he is a language commentator on public radio.
John Shore is the author of I'm OK--You're Not: The Message We're Sending Nonbelievers and Why We Should Stop, and Penguins, Pain and the Whole Shebang.
Both authors live in San Diego, California.
"Comma Sense is a clear, entertaining, and just plain helpful guide
to the American rules of punctuation." --Lynne Truss, #1 New York
Times bestselling author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves "Of my 465 books
on punctuation---I've read them all---Comma Sense is the wisest and
funniest. It's the only one you really need." --Bryan A. Garner,
author of Garner's Modern American Usage "A thorough field guide to
the pesky little critters of the punctuation forest.Lederer and
Shore hit the marks!" --Bill Walsh, author of The Elephants of
Style "Who else would call the exclamation point 'this titan of
tingle, this prince of palpitation'? Who else would call the
apostrophe the Jesse James of punctuation? Who else would compare
the dash to Fred Astaire, the semicolon to Duke Ellington, and
parentheses (yes, my darlings) to Louella Parsons? It can only be
Richard Lederer, Viceroy of Verbivores, and his trusty sidekick,
John Shore." --Patricia T. O'Conner, author of Woe Is I
"Punctuation needn't be perplexing or painful, as Richard Lederer
and John Shore make abundantly clear. Comma Sense is full of
easy-to-understand guidance for the grammatically challenged---and
loads of laughs besides!" --Martha Barnette, author of Dog Days and
Dandelions "If America had 'Living National Treasures, ' the way
Japan and Korea do, Richard Lederer would be one." --Barbara
Wallraff, author of Your Own Words "Now a pair of U.S. writers has
joined the grammar book sweepstakes, guiding us through the correct
usage of 13 punctuation marks - period, question mark, exclamation
point, comma, semicolon, colon, dash, apostrophe, quotation marks,
parentheses, brackets, hyphen and ellipsis - in Comma Sense (St.
Martin's Press, $22.95, 140 pp). Authors Richard Lederer and John
Shore don't take Truss' no-prisoners approach, but rather try to
convince us that getting the comma in the right place can be fun.
"The power's in the punctuation, baby," write Lederer and Shore.
"And we're gonna show you how to be a power pack of punctuational
potency." Lederer is the author of more than 30 books on the
English language. Shore is a magazine writer and editor. Together
they've linked punctuation marks to various American personalities:
The dash is Fred Astaire, the exclamation point is Lucy Ricardo,
the question mark is Albert Einstein and (my favorite) parentheses
are gossip columnist Louella Parsons. Okay, it's goofy, but if this
book stops just one person from mixing up the proper use of "its"
and "it's" ever again, I hope it's nominated for the Pulitzer. For,
alas, punctuation not only pays, it matters. As Lederer and Shore
point out, "Like it or not, writing well - not artistically, not
ornately, not floridly, but just competently - really is the
difference between being largely able to define your own life and
having much of your life defined for you. Writing is, in a word,
power." Writing well is important for business, but it also can be
crucial in love, the writers warn. Do you want to say, "I would
like to tell you that I love you. I can't stop thinking that you
are one of the prettiest women on Earth," or "I would like to tell
you that I love you. I can't. Stop thinking that you are one of the
prettiest women on Earth." As Lederer and Shore say, "Punctuation
can mean the difference between a second date and a restraining
order." --Margo Hammond, St. Petersburg Times "Lederer and Shore's
Comma Sense-bear in mind that it's their first collaboration-is
speckled with humor so lame that it keeps falling on its
assonance." Whoever wrote that callous, brutal comment about Comma
Sense must be lacking in their own sense of humor. Oh, wait, that
comment was written by Lederer and Shore. My mistake. Yes, this
book is truly unique! If language can be considered a cartoon, then
Comma Sense is Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Road Runner, Batman, the
Far Side, Charlie Brown, and Donald Duck all rolled into one. Each
chapter is devoted to one of 13 punctuation marks. These
punctuation marks have fun, make fun, and are fun! My favorite is
the dash, who is compared to Fred Astaire: "The dash emboldens
eloquence; Fred Astaire embodies elegance. Plus, they're both
skinny." Comma Sense spins tales that sound like facts until you
realize that they co-exist with punctuation marks in the wild and
crazy world of Ledererean lingofantasy. "Little Shirley Temple
chirped, '...And most of all, I'd like to thank that most wonderful
of punctuation marks, the hyphen, which I personify!'" Seriously,
this book has been cited as the clearest source on punctuation ever
written. It is necessary for saving the human race from its
dangerous slide into a punctuationless exclamation point of no
return! It tells you everything you wanted to know about
punctuation but were afraid to ask. If you want to see punc rock,
open the pages of this comprehensive, hilarious book. Here is a
song you will find in it that showcases the seven coordinating
conjunctions. It is sung to the tune of the Julie Andrews smash
hit, "Do, Re, Mi." Go ahead and sing it out loud! If your neighbors
complain, give them this review and tell them to buy the book! And,
a word, a real small word;
But, it's spelled with just one t;
Or, a stick we use to row;
Nor, half of a cold countreeeee;
Yet, you bet it rhymes with wet;
For, one number more than three;
So a button on your fly-
And that brings us back to do, re, mi!" --Dave Morice, Word Ways
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