The Quotable Guide to Punctuation

Each time a new edition of The TLS Reviewer's Handbook is published, we receive invitations to dine by candlelight. Now we know why. "A national survey in 2013 (funded by Match.com) found that single men and women say that good grammar is one of the most important qualities that they judge when they choose a romantic partner." The words come from The Quotable Guide to Punctuation by Stephen Spector, an amusing approach to clear and eloquent expression ... There is a lot of good advice in Mr Spector's guide. [It] opens by inviting us to spot the difference between these two sentences: Only I can take her to bed, and make her laugh. Only I can take her to bed and make her laugh." -- Times Literary Supplement "This volume offers a light and highly practical guide to punctuation for non-experts, that can possibly work well for the intended audience in the light of its witty, accessible style and abundance of interesting examples." -- Filippo Pecorarri, University of Basel, Linguist List "Spector makes punctuation interesting, entertaining, and easy to understand. Read it the first time for fun, and refer to it later to find answers for specific questions."-Mignon Fogarty, author of Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing (St. Martin's Griffin) "Stephen Spector has handed us a great gift: a comprehensive, contemporary, and entertaining guide to punctuation."-Roy Peter Clark, author of Writing Tools and The Glamour of Grammar (Little Brown & Company) "A recent book by Stephen Spector of Stony Brook University, The Quotable Guide to Punctuation (Oxford University Press, 2017), is entirely devoted to the deployment of punctuation marks. It is a well-written and often entertaining student-oriented book that will be useful for anyone who teaches writing." --Chronicle of Higher Education