Grammatically Speaking
I received Eats, Shoots and Leaves for Christmas. Lynne Truss approaches grammar like Joe Frazier approaches a fight -- no nonsense, no pulled punches, and no prisoners. For example,
Someone wrote to say that my use of "one's" was wrong ("a common error"), and that it should be ones. This is such rubbish that I refuse to argue about it. Go and tell Virginia Woolf it should be A Room of Ones Own and see how far you get.
and
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.
The one area where she does equivocate a bit is regarding the effect of the Internet on language (and punctuation in particular). While she decries e-communication's effect on the language --"Nothing as scary as this has confronted punctuation before" -- I disagree. Sure, the rules of the road are often neglected in e-mails and text messages, but abbreviated formatting is nothing new. Rather, I am excited and encouraged by the lofty standards of communication, including grammar and even punctuation, being displayed on the Internet.
In my own profession, I have been distressed that lawyers, while occupying an ever-greater role in society, have been largely divorced from the intelligible debates of that society. Now, though, through weblogs, lawyers are applying their analytical and communication skills to the issues of the day -- in ways that people can even understand. For a small sampling, check out Glenn Reynolds, Richard Posner, Benjamin Volokh, Hugh Hewitt, Ann Althouse, Stephen Bainbridge, and the folks at Powerline.
Someone wrote to say that my use of "one's" was wrong ("a common error"), and that it should be ones. This is such rubbish that I refuse to argue about it. Go and tell Virginia Woolf it should be A Room of Ones Own and see how far you get.
and
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.
The one area where she does equivocate a bit is regarding the effect of the Internet on language (and punctuation in particular). While she decries e-communication's effect on the language --"Nothing as scary as this has confronted punctuation before" -- I disagree. Sure, the rules of the road are often neglected in e-mails and text messages, but abbreviated formatting is nothing new. Rather, I am excited and encouraged by the lofty standards of communication, including grammar and even punctuation, being displayed on the Internet.
In my own profession, I have been distressed that lawyers, while occupying an ever-greater role in society, have been largely divorced from the intelligible debates of that society. Now, though, through weblogs, lawyers are applying their analytical and communication skills to the issues of the day -- in ways that people can even understand. For a small sampling, check out Glenn Reynolds, Richard Posner, Benjamin Volokh, Hugh Hewitt, Ann Althouse, Stephen Bainbridge, and the folks at Powerline.
posted by steve u. at 12/28/2004
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