Punctuate It Right!: A Complete Quick-reference Guide to Modern Punctuation [Paperback]

You want to know about semicolons? You like learning big time about hyphens (where did I forget to use one)? Well brother, you came to the right place! Get this book and it'll be a punctuation party until dawn! Yeah! It loses a star due to its unfair treatment of the ellipsis.

This world -- and especially Internet denizens -- could stand to learn more than a thing or two about punctuation (and grammar, also, although the two are inextricably entwined). Nevermind colons; nevermind semi-colons (although it is important to understand their proper use, as well). The section on commas alone makes this volume absolutely indispensible! Commas are so horribly misused and abused in our "Information Age" that incoherence and incomprehensibility are far too often the result.

One thing I've encountered recently, for example, is the ignorance of some of how vocatives ought to be treated. A vocative, to quote Mr. Shaw, is "a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase used in direct address. That is, a vocative indicates to whom something is said." I have encountered sentences similar to the following:

* "What would you do Mr. Kress if I were to put a pistol to your temple?"

While understandable, the punctuation is completely lacking, and fails to note the pause that would occur in such a statement when Mr. Kress is addressed. Vocatives are to be set off by commas. Thus, the correct punctuation would be:

* "What would you do, Mr. Kress, if I were to put a pistol to your temple?"

Commas can also change the entire meaning of a sentence. The following, taken from the Bible, is an excellent example:

* "I tell you the truth, today you will be with Me in Paradise."
* "I tell you the truth today, you will be with Me in Paradise."

In the first example, which is found in any Protestant or Catholic Bible, Christ is telling the thief on the cross next to him that that very day he shall join Christ in Paradise. In the second, while Christ promises the thief that he will be in Paradise, he makes no mention of when that will happen, leaving the thief to anguish in ignorance of when this promise will be fulfilled. The word "today" instead refers to Christ telling him the truth that day, which carries the implication that he might lie to him on the next day. This example shows just how important commas are and how important it is to know how to use them, whether you believe in the Bible or not.

The book is organized in two divisions: 1) What Punctuation Is and Does, and 2) The Individual Marks.

The first division begins with a chapter discussing that "punctuation is for clarity." There then follows a survey of punctuation, trends in punctuation, and the purposes of punctuation.

The second division covers all the marks: abbreviations, accent (or diacritical) marks, apostrophes, asterisks, bars (virgules), braces, brackets, capital letters, the caret (^), colons, commas, compound words, dashes, ditto marks, division of words, ellipses, exclamation points, hyphens, italics, numerals, parentheses, periods, question marks, quotation marks, and, yes, even the dreaded and often misunderstood semi-colons.

I absolutely love that an entire volume is devoted exclusively to punctuation. It's a volume which has served me well whenever I've had questions of my own as to how to punctuate a sentence I've written.

As an English major, I would recommend this book for any serious grammarian or proofreader or editor. It picks up where most other grammar books leave off. It is essential for every person who enjoys the proper use of grammar.