monoceros blogsThis review came out two months ago, and I should have posted it when I first read it then. But since I recently put up Lynne Truss' book, Eats, Shoots & Leaves, on my weblog as part of a list of writing tools, the timing works out decently.
When a peer in my writing program considered using Ms. Truss' book in the classroom this fall, I cautioned him, saying that the book hasn't been edited for an American audience, unless you count a couple of sentences in the Foreword as "edited for an American audience." American punctuation is quite different from British punctuation - serial commas, periods (full-stops) that always occur inside quotation marks (inverted commas) - and the book might leave his freshmen more confused than confident as they enter the realm of college writing.
The reviewer at The New York Times finds more problems with the book than just differences in punctuation style. Go here to read more.
Posted by Monoceros at June 19, 2004 1:08 AMi didn't know that brits and americans not only speak differently, they also write differently...hmm.
Posted by: tiggie at June 19, 2004 7:15 AMi think we all speak differently anyway... but its so curious to find writing punctuation distinctions!
Posted by: airhole at June 21, 2004 8:37 PM