“Apostrophe” comes from a Greek word meaning “turning away” and hence “elision” or “omission”. Fortunately, Truss does not continue in that vein, instead treating details about her beloved apostrophe in an informative and – even better – humorous way. We are talking about a punctuation mark, aren’t we? Punctuation marks are necessary to prevent misunderstanding and invaluable for clarifying meaning, but to ascribe feelings to them is going a bit far. You can tell Truss feels strongly about punctuation because she initially declares: “Everywhere one looks, there are signs of ignorance and indifference.” She waxes more passionately about the apostrophe than about any other punctuation mark, believing it “has always done its proper jobs in our language with enthusiasm and elegance, but it has never been taken seriously enough its talent for adaptability has been cruelly taken for granted”. “Surprise” because who would have thought a book about punctuation would have become such a commercial success? In her book, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, Truss shows how an improper punctuation mark can make all the difference. Its doings are given some attention in Lynne Truss’s surprise 2003 bestseller Eats, Shoots & Leaves. If there are only pedants left who care, then so be it. The Apostrophe Protection Society does exist. In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, former editor Lynne Truss dares to say, in her delightfully urbane, witty, and very English way, that it is time to look at our commas and semicolons and see them as the wonderful and necessary things they are.
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