was she trying for irony?

[cellio]

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation sounds like a great book for grammar nerds, but I am put off somewhat by the 1.5 punctuation errors in the title. (One is debatable and might be excused by context (it refers to a joke containing the phrase); the other is clearly wrong.)

Comments

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

She's British, so for her it may not be an error.

Actually, one of the complaints I read about the American printing of the book was that there was no introduction added to explain the differences between American and British English grammar.

[rani23.livejournal.com]

Another thing to consider is that the author doesn't usually have control over what the front of the book looks like -- that's often up to the publisher.

[murmur311.livejournal.com]

The missing comma isn't necessarily a British thing, either. The editors here (at my magazine) are very adamant about not having that last comma- something I discovered when I began doing the calendar listings.

[steven.livejournal.com]

I'm not a fan of the serial comma, but I'd hyphenate "zero tolerance."

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Um, I see no grammar mistakes - what comma, where? (bear in mind I'm a Brit)

[amergina.livejournal.com]

If I remember correctly from talking to Karen, The Associated Press uses the X, Y & Z form of commas. All the papers she ever worked at followed the AP guidelines. I prefer the X, Y, & Z form and use it in my documentation. As long as the usage is consistent, it's fine. :)

[ichur72.livejournal.com]

The lack of hyphenation in zero-tolerance seems to be controversial, but ... When I learned copy editing at my university paper (we used the AP stylebook), I seem to remember that the rule was to hyphenate if the words in question were being used as an adjective (as they are here) and not to hyphenate if the words in question were being used as a noun. To wit:

"I have zero tolerance for this approach."

vs.

"The principal's zero-tolerance policy won enthusiastic support from parents."

ampersand?

[caryabend.livejournal.com]

I used to place a comma between the last two items in a list, even when using the word "and." This changed for me within the last several years when I found that it violated some revised grammar rules. (Similar to the "one space after the period between sentences" rule.)

What I don't know is if substituting the ampersand symbol changes the rule for placing a comma. I suspect it may, but I don't have a trustworthy non-web reference handy.

as one professional to another

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

Serial commas are not required by all style guides. I didn't use them myself until I had to learn Chicago style. In fact, when I worked for a professor who used them, he told me they were old-fashioned and on their way out. Even though I am used to them now, that's mostly because I work for an academic audience. Popular contexts (such as newspapers and magazines) omit the serial comma, and that's fine!

I guess writers really have no control over the cover

[rectangularcat]

The title is not the same in the British Version...

http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/referenceandlanguages/story/0,6000,1097818,00.html