Who Knew Commas Could be Funny?
Eats, Shoots, and Leaves
by Lynne Truss
(Gotham Books, 2003)
What do two English teachers do on summer vacation? Head to the bookstore and talk grammar. Sounds like a serious cliche, but yes this is what I did last week. I found a tidy little used copy of Eats, Shoots and Leaves and devoured it just in time to cram grammar into the summer-dazed heads of high school students. I love tutoring and especially love the idea of teaching students how to slay the SAT, but grammar instruction drives me more than a little looney. But what fun I had last night opening the class with the panda story that inspired the title of this book. And the look on my students' faces was priceless! They truly looked ill-at-ease about laughing at a story about comma placement gone nasty: "Are we really allowed to laugh during a grammar lesson?" I will never again teach punctuation without this book by my side to quote from and to inspire me to, if nothing else, make 'em laugh.
Here's some of Truss' closing advice on commas:
"The big final rule for the comma is one that you won't find in any books by grammarians. It is quite easy to remember, however. The rule is: don't use commas like a stupid person. I mean it. More than any other mark, the comma requires the writer to use intelligent discretion and to be simply alert to potential ambiguity. For example:
1 Leonora walked on her head, a little higher than usual.
2 The driver managed to escape from the vehicle before it sank and swam to the river-bank.
3 Don't guess, use a timer or watch.
4 The convict said the judge is mad.
In the first example, of course, the comma has been misplaced and belongs after "on." The second example suggests that the vehicle swam to the river bank, rather than the passenger. It requires a comma after "sank." The third is pretty interesting, since it actually conveys the opposite of its intended meaning. What it appears to say is, "Don't guess, or use a timer or a watch," when in fact it only wants to tell you not to guess. It therefore requires a semicolon or even a full stop after "guess," rather than a comma. The fourth makes perfect sense, of course -- unless what's intended is: "The convict, said the judge, is mad."
While I found myself having to explain these ambiguities to the students, I think it was well worth the effort to get them to think deeply and reach those ah-ha moments.