Commas Save Lives

Yesterday was National Punctuation Day. It's not too late to celebrate.

I'm a big punctuation fan, as evidenced by this photo of my favorite coffee mug.

But I didn't know such a commemorative day existed until I came across its website recently. Yes, it has a website.

There you'll discover how and when punctuation started, how it evolved, why it's important ... even why it can be fun.

Punctuation's history, from 900 BCE to the present.

Punctuation does many things but they boil down to one big one: Clarifying meaning.

Take the punctuation best-seller Eats, Shoots and Leaves, by Lynne Truss.

The title's a joke, son, one I'd rather not spoil by explaining. Just grok the cover and figure it out for yourself.

OK, time's up. It's All About the Commas. Without commas, the title means one thing; with commas, the title means something much different.

But how many commas, pray? You might as well ask a grammarian how many of his colleagues can dance on the head of a pin.

I'm referring to the Great Oxford Comma Controversy (or con-TROV-er-sy as the Brits would have it), one of punctuation's standout battles.

The so-called Oxford comma that grammarians consider coming to blows over is the final comma in a series: the one that appears before "and". In the case of the book title, the Oxford comma is the big red one: E a t s , S h o o t s , a n d L e a v e s .

(Note that Ms. Truss, herself a Brit, chose not to use an Oxford comma in the title of her book.)

My favorite punctuation-mark? It's the interrobang.

Betcha never heard of it. That's because it's hardly ever used.

But it ought to be. Check it out and tell me you don't agree:

(c) Freeology

It's a question-mark! It's an exclamation-point!! It's both!?!?!?!?

Except that, if the interrobang were in common usage, I could dispense with all those !?!?!?!? in favor of a single

I could go on and on. In my family, they don't call me the Word Man for nothing.

Maybe now they'll change "Man" to "Nerd."

Frank S Joseph Author

P.S. My Chicago Trilogy novels are light on punctuation. This was an editorial decision thrust upon me by my first publisher, John Patrick Grace. Patrick's then-company Mid Atlantic Highlands published To Love Mercy in 2006.

I'd been littering my sentences with commas, semicolons, etc. Patrick suggested stripping out most of them. It'll make the novel a faster read, he argued..

We fought over that. We fought over a lot of things. I finally gave in though and I'm glad. Patrick was right -- it did make To Love Mercy a faster read. I've followed that bare writing style in all three Trilogy novels.

Mid Atlantic Highlands published To Love Mercy before it was envisioned as the first book of trilogy.

It was a finalist in eight contests, including for the prestigious Eric Hoffer Award, and sold thousands of copies.

So I'm pleased to announce To Love Mercy will be republished in an updated edition by Key Literary. Publication date hasn't been finalized yet but it'll be several months from now.

Now is the time to make your advance order at a special price: 20% off.

Whatever the paperback cover price turns out to be, you, Dear Reader, get a 20% discount.

Lock in your 20% discount NOW with an email to me personally. Just click on my email address, frank@frankjoseph.com.