“We may curse our bad luck that it's sounds like its; who's sounds like whose; they're sounds like their (and their); there's sounds like theirs; and you're sounds like your. But if we are grown-ups who have been through full-time education, we have no excuse for muddling them up.”
― Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
― Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
“The reason it's worth standing up for punctuation is not that it's an arbitrary system of notation known only to an over-sensitive elite who have attacks of the vapours when they see it misapplied. The reason to stand up for punctuation is that without it there is no reliable way of communicating meaning.”
― Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
― Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
“The rule is: the word 'it's' (with apostrophe) stands for 'it is' or 'it has'. If the word does not stand for 'it is' or 'it has' then what you require is 'its'. This is extremely easy to grasp. Getting your itses mixed up is the greatest solecism in the world of punctuation. No matter that you have a PhD and have read all of Henry James twice. If you still persist in writing, 'Good food at it's best', you deserve to be struck by lightning, hacked up on the spot and buried in an unmarked grave.”
― Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
― Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
“The reason to stand up for punctuation is that without it there is no reliable way of communicating meaning.”
― Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
― Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
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