Getting the Point.

Many readers may remember the unexpected success of Lynne Truss's book on punctuation, 'Eats Shoots and Leaves'. This book advertises itself as a panic free guide to English punctuation for adults and certainly succeeds in its name, if in a less witty fashion than Truss. Unless one is teaching, much of one's knowledge of punctuation will be implicit. In the 1980s I taught one of my classes at Winchester 'The Complete Plain Words' by Sir Ernest Gowers, and learnt a great deal myself in the process. I think that anyone really interested in the correct usage of the English language should read at least one book on punctuation. This book, with its explanations and exercises, is very useful and can certainly be recommended to students as well as adults.