Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5544 in Books
• Published on: 1997-08-07
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Synopsis
The Penguin Guide to Punctuation is indispensable for anyone who needs to get to grips with using punctuation in their written work. Whether you are puzzled by colons and semicolons, unsure of where commas should go or baffled by apostrophes, this jargon-free, succinct guide is for you.

From the Publisher

A sample extract:

THE APOSTROPHE

5.2 Unusual Plurals

As a general rule, we never use an apostrophe in writing plural forms. (A plural form is one that denotes more than one of something.) Hence the things that those shops are selling are pizzas, videos, fine wines, cream teas, and mountain bikes. It is absolutely wrong to write pizza's, video's, fine wine's, cream tea's, and mountain bike's if you merely want to talk about more than one pizza or video or whatever. The same goes even when you want to pluralize a proper name:

She's trying to keep up with the Joneses.

There are four Steves and three Julies in my class.

Several of the Eleanor Crosses are still standing today.

Do not write things like Jones's, Steve's, Julie's or Eleanor Cross's if you are merely talking about more than one person or thing with that name.

Customer Reviews

The single most helpful reference book on English punctuation and related topics
As a native German and long-time anglophile I had been looking for something like this for ages. The author manages to convey his insights without any hint of intellectual stiffness or arrogance. At the same time one gets the impression he knows what he is talking about. But he is not dogmatic, either. He will freely acknowledge when his view differs from, say, common usage at publishing houses.
At the end of each chapter, there is a summary of the most important/basic rules for quick reference.
The "Penguin Guide to Punctuation" is highly informative as well as fun to read. Language scholarship at its best put to practical use. Highly recommended.

Nice book to learn or 're-learn' your punctuation...
This is a nice little book to get you started or even refresh your memory on correct punctuation. It's a nice and easy book to read through and, though a mere 160 pages or so, very comprehensive, covering all you will need to know about punctuation. I've just quickly read through it today, but will read through it in more detail at my leisure in the hope of purging some of my many bad writing habits. Recommended.

Splendid book
This is the best book on punctuation that I know. Each punctuation mark is very well explained. However, to be brief, I will comment only on how professor Trask explains the use of the comma. He says that there are only four uses of the comma. He lists the four uses (the only four) of the comma and then presents a test designed to help you to decide for yourself if a comma is used properly or not. Sometimes it is hard to apply the test. For example consider the following sentence that you can find on page 39 of the book. "The situation is clear: if you have unprotected sex with a stranger, you risk AIDS." Now try to apply professor Trask test to decide if the comma in this sentence is correct or not. I have tried the test in other examples and found it very easy to use. This should be compared with the, also excellent, approach by professor Anne Stilman in the book "Grammatically correct". She lists six rules on how to use the comma each rule with several sub cases. I personally prefer professor Trask approach. The approach to the comma example is the same to the other punctuation marks. Every one of them is carefully explained in probably the most concise away.