Welcome back to the Hugoversity library, where we read and review PR and marketing-related books to help our students decide what to read next.
In this month’s edition, prefect Elisha read Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss.
But this is a book about punctuation, not marketing?
Yes, you got us. This book is solely about using punctuation correctly, but there’s nothing wrong with having a little refresher and brushing up on your skills. In PR and marketing, there’s nothing more important than being able to write fluently and accurately.
It’s always great to make sure your skills are honed; just as you work out in the gym, your brain needs to train now and again too. So sometimes you just need to go back to basics and refresh your memory on punctuation, spelling and grammar.
In the book, Truss uses comical examples of poorly-punctuated sentences to make understanding simple, so it doesn’t feel like a chore to read. It is perhaps surprising to call it a page-turner, but it truly is an enjoyable, easy read.
Using examples of literature and history, Truss goes into great depth to show that full stops, commas and semi-colons have a worthy place in the English language, despite the digital age changing the way we communicate. (That’s right, a semi-colon has more uses than just the eyes of a wink face emoji.)
The modern world and punctuation
Truss argues that the good news for punctuation is that the age of printing has been glorious having held sway for more than half a millennium. But the bad news is that the printing age is due to hold its official retirement party next Friday afternoon at half-past five. And she’s not wrong – the digital age has well and truly taken centre stage.
“Yes, I write quite different in emails, especially punctuation. I feel it’s OK to use dashes all the time, and exclamation marks. And those dot, dot, dot things.” – Which does sound all too familiar.
And a very clear example that we’re moving away from punctuation is this article about the ‘snowflake generation’ being triggered by the humble full stop, just because it seems too mean or blunt at the end of a sentence.
It would appear that youngsters are used to communicating by breaking up their thoughts through sending separate messages, rather than using full stops, as this has become a signal to use when annoyed or irritated.
This indeed can work in the digital world, but in books, we need the “solid little chaps” to break up our sentences. I can imagine how Truss would be pulling her hair out if she stumbled across the above article – in what she describes “the family of punctuation, where the full stop is daddy”, she deems them a necessity in the English language and urges the reader to protect punctuation no matter what.
Books vs digital
Indeed, the digital age has changed the way in which we write. But in Eats, Shoots and Leaves, Truss stresses the value of books and argues that there is a stark difference between how we consume printed media and digital technology.
For example, she explains that the printed world is presented to us in a linear way, with syntax supreme in conveying the sense of the worlds in their order. We read privately, mentally listening to the writer’s voice, and translating their thoughts. Books remain static and fixed, while the reader journeys through them. You pay for books and have a sense of investment and pride of ownership.
Conversely, the digital world is presented to us in a non-linear way, through an exponential series of lateral associations. The internet is a public space that you visit and is inherently impersonal and disembodied in comparison to a book or printed piece of work. Truss also suggests that most information on the internet has no price, and therefore is of questionable value.
Truss concludes that: “If the book is dying out then at least it is treating its loyal fans to an extravagant and extended swan song.”
Should you read it?
Yes – because it’s important to understand the significance of punctuation and the history of the English language as it stands today. You’ll learn about how Shakespeare used to use dashes to insinuate pauses in his theatrical plays, and how this led people to confuse the uses of the comma and the dash.
You’ll understand the value of correctly placing a punctuation mark. Truss uses this example of a telegram that should have said: “Not getting any better. Come at once” but sent as “Not getting any. Better come at once.”
You’ll become aware of how you use punctuation properly and understand that it does have a place in the digital world. Perhaps you’ll even tidy up your use of exclamation marks and ellipsis in your emails… Who knows? Anything is possible!
And of course, you may develop what Truss would call a seventh sense for spelling, punctuation, and grammar, although it might leave you feeling frustrated at poorly-written content, and itching to grab a red pen and scribble corrections over punctuation mishaps.
If you need a helping hand understanding a thing or two about the punctuation family, the history of the English language, and how you can protect it against the dreaded digital age – then this is the book for you.
