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Comma Sense: A Fun-damental Guide to Punctuation [Hardcover]

Richard Lederer (Author), John Shore (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)


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Book Description

July 28, 2005 0312342543 978-0312342548 First Edition
Are you confounded by commas, addled by apostrophes, or queasy about quotation marks? Do you believe a bracket is just a support for a wall shelf, a dash is something you make for the bathroom, and a colon and semicolon are large and small intestines? If so, language humorists Richard Lederer and John Shore (with the sprightly aid of illustrator Jim McLean), have written the perfect book to help make your written words perfectly precise and punctuationally profound.
Don't expect Comma Sense to be a dry, academic tome. On the contrary, the authors show how each mark of punctuation--no matter how seemingly arcane--can be effortlessly associated with a great American icon: the underrated yet powerful period with Seabiscuit; the jazzy semicolon with Duke Ellington; even the rebel apostrophe with famed outlaw Jesse James. But this book is way more than a flight of whimsy. When you've finished Comma Sense, you'll not only have mastered everything you need to know about punctuation through Lederer and Shore's simple, clear, and right-on-the-mark rules, you'll have had fun doing so. When you're done laughing and learning, you'll be a veritable punctuation whiz, ready to make your marks accurately, sensitively, and effectively.


Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lederer has long been one of America's most popular experts on language and grammar, but here he seems to be taking his cue from Lynn Truss in focusing on the ins and outs of commas, semi-colons and the other little dots and dashes that punctuate our writing. Lederer, with writer and editor Shore, tries a bit too hard to convince readers of the importance of good punctuation ("Good punctuation makes for a good life") and to make the whole business amusing (the period is "a mark so dinky that farsighted fleas court it"); disquisitions on Seabiscuit and Albert Einstein's hair are distractions rather than entertainments. And all the talk of how the apostrophe is like Jesse James explains less than Lederer's straightforward usage examples, such as the serious differences in meaning between these two sentences: "The butler stood in the doorway and called the guests names"; "The butler stood in the doorway and called the guests' names." Yes, punctuation is important, and the bold-face print for basic rules does make this an easy-to-use guide for the punctuationally perplexed.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Lederer is a prolific author of language books, most notably the Anguished English series. Here, along with professional journalist Shore, he offers brief chapters on 13 punctuation marks. This primer will be useful to anyone needing a refresher course on the basics of punctuation. Aware that most people find grammatical advice to be rather dry and sometimes intimidating subject matter, Lederer employs a jocular tone intended to disarm wary readers. Thus, the dash ("fluid and graceful") is introduced by way of Fred Astaire; Shirley Temple acts as a stand-in for the hyphen ("perky, yet resolute"); and Jesse James gets the apostrophe ("a tad flamboyant"). To keep things from getting altogether too cute, Lederer explains the finer points of the exclamation point by quoting wacky dialogue from the I Love Lucy show. Concise instruction from a fun-loving grammarian. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 160 pages
  • Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (July 28, 2005)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0312342543
  • ISBN-13: 978-0312342548
  • Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,164,715 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John is a popular blogger on JohnShore.com and for "The Huffington Post."

Here is what others have said about him:

"John Shore is America's preeminent non-douchey Christian." -- Dan Savage, "Savage Love," founder of the It Gets Better Project.

"John Shore is awesome. The minute I started reading his stuff, I knew he was a brother from another mother." -- Rob Bell, author of "Love Wins," "Sex God," and "Velvet Elvis."

"John Shore is a gadfly, calling the Christian Church everywhere to act the way it says it believes about love and justice, which of course makes him an uncomfortable presence in those churches that do not like to be forced to face reality. So were the prophets of old. So was Jesus of Nazareth." -- John Shelby Spong. author of "Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World," "Why Christianity Must Change or Die," "Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism," and others.

"Shore is a humorist whose work is more comedic than Donald Miller, and his appeal to Christians is more direct."-- Michael Spencer, a.k.a. The Internet Monk, and author of the bestseller "Mere Churchianity."

"John Shore is funny as hell and smart as hell, which is good because I've heard that we're both going to spend a long time there." -- Tony Jones, Theoblogy; The Tony Jones Blog; author of The New Christians; The Sacred Way; Postmodern Youth Ministry; Divine Intervention; Ask, Seek, Knock; and others.

"John Shore is one of those rare writers who can make people laugh and think at the same time. He's one of the most talented, funny, and deeply thoughtful writers I know. He's a sincere pleasure to read."-- Richard Louv, author of international bestsellers "Last Child in the Woods," and "The Nature Principle."

"John Shore is a remarkably gifted writer who knows exactly what he is doing." -- Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of "The Deep End of the Ocean" (an Oprah's Book Club selection), "Twelve Times Blessed," and "The Breakdown Lane."

"John Shore, the legitimate son of Kurt Vonnegut and Dave Barry, writes with a freaky energy and humor and imagination that illuminate his characters' and readers' hearts. He's the real thing."-- Richard Lederer, author of more than thirty books on the English language, including the bestselling "Anguished English" series and "The Miracle of Language."

"Shore is a madman and a genius."-- Eric Metaxas, author of bestsellers "Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery," and, "Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy," the Christian Booksellers Association 2011 Book of the Year.

"John Shore's unique, honest, and passionate writings draw us to dig a little deeper, to listen with the intention of truly hearing and understanding each other. He gives voice to those without a platform; he puts into words our latent questions/ observations about today's topics that are begging to be addressed from the viewpoint of an informed Christian"-- Spencer Burke, founder of TheOOZE.com

 

Customer Reviews

11 Reviews
5 star:
 (9)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Buy it , you'll like it., May 5, 2006
This review is from: Comma Sense: A Fun-damental Guide to Punctuation (Hardcover)
This is the unique book that has you mentally tallying up your friend's birthdays before you get to the last chapter (lets see... I can buy it for Ken, and Susie, and my daughter so she won't dog-ear my copy...). I picked this up for an educationally boring read that would knock me out at bedtime and instead found myself staying up most of the night laughing. Comma Sense is the darndest, funniest, wittiest educational book I've ever read. You can't help but learn something... it sort of seeps into your brain while you're distracted with a mental picture of what the Andrew Sisters would look like if viewed from above (yes, of COURSE they would look like...well, read Chapter 13 and you'll find out). I would write more, but I have to rush out now and buy extra copies for everyone I know.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Comma Sense: A Fun-damental Guide to Pronunciation., October 15, 2005
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This review is from: Comma Sense: A Fun-damental Guide to Punctuation (Hardcover)
For me, personally, this was the right book at the right time.

I was searching for a source that would support or contrast the recent (British) publication entitled: EATS, SHOOTS AND LEAVES which, while an excellent and useful guide, left me confounded regarding its appropriateness for American English. This matter was settled promptly by the authors of the subject.

My recent re-interest in writing improvement and excellence, aside from standard business letters, has been spurned by an increased usage of email.

I am familiar with Richard Lederer's work and use of humor, and this lived up to and exceeded my expectations: All issues pertaining to punctuation are addressed; and all conceivable questions answered.

Additionally, the handy "review" section following the last chapter makes this an invaluable, easy-to-use, portable guide.

This is far more than recommendable: it's necessary!
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Not just another book on punctuation, January 4, 2006
This review is from: Comma Sense: A Fun-damental Guide to Punctuation (Hardcover)
Not just another book on punctuation! What can Comma Sense: A Fundamental Guide To Punctuation hold over its many competitors? 'Fun' is the operative word here, as Richard Lederer and John Shore poke fun at the misuse of punctuation and how choices in punctuation can have very different results. Plenty of examples come couched in this humor, which makes Comma Sense quite easy to learn. Just consider that here the exclamation point is the 'titan of tingle, the prince of palpitation' and you have some idea of the allure of Comma Sense - and its potential of educating those who traditionally wouldn't touch grammar books with a ten-foot pole.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
One of life's great oddities is how it's filled with things that don't seem as if they belong together, yet are inextricably joined. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
alliteration addict, serial comma, use commas
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Fred Astaire, Allan Pinkerton, Andrews Sisters, Duke Ellington, Oliver Wendell Holmes
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Surprise Me!
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