Eats, Shoots and Leaves Disussion

[DesDownunder]

Discussions including comments on the pinned topics should be in the unpinned area, here.

The reason is so that we can look at the references without having to wade through comments.

Anyway, I tried to move the comments and the stupid thing deleted your comments which I have managed to copy and post below.

It's a mess. At least we still have your comments.

Replies (1 - 6)

Camy

Jul 18 2008, 10:58 AM IP: 81.158.158.222 | Post #2 |

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Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. by Lynne Truss.

Colin recommended this. It's both a good read, and funny as well.

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writebymyself

Jul 18 2008, 11:11 AM IP: 98.64.34.47 | Post #3 |

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QUOTE(Camy @ Jul 17 2008, 09:28 PM)

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. by Lynne Truss.

Colin recommended this. It's both a good read, and funny as well.

I have been recommending this book since it came out to anyone who will listen. It's a great, fun way to learn why the rules are what they are.

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colinian

Jul 18 2008, 12:07 PM IP: 66.159.224.17 | Post #4 |

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QUOTE(writebymyself @ Jul 17 2008, 06:41 PM)

I have been recommending this book since it came out to anyone who will listen. It's a great, fun way to learn why the rules are what they are.

Another thing I like about this book is that Lynne Truss tells us how to bend the rules -- and when not to.

Colin

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Trab

Jul 18 2008, 01:21 PM IP: 70.66.57.84 | Post #5 |

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I'm reading this book a few pages at a time, much like savouring a wonderful dessert.

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Criticism from a fool is no criticism at all.

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Cole Parker

Jul 18 2008, 01:34 PM IP: 71.104.28.217 | Post #6 |

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When this book was first mentioned, a year or so ago, I bought two copies, the English version and the American version. Since then, I will admit they've sat on my shelf, unopened.

I bought two, thinking I'd send one to my brother and keep one for myself. I didnt intentionally buy two different versions; they just came that way.

But, now that I have two, there's a dilemma: which do I read and keep, which do I send off? This may not seem much of a problem, but it's enough that I haven't resolved it in a long time. So, which do I read? Which do I keep?

Any suggestions?

C

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Trab

Jul 18 2008, 02:31 PM IP: 70.66.57.84 | Post #7 |

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Read the English version. You already know Americanese.

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Criticism from a fool is no criticism at all.

[Trab]

It looks to me to be too complicated to do what you want in the way of posting a recommendation in one place and having the comments elsewhere. It seems to be a multi-faceted problem.

1/ the recommended reference is in a specific pinned location, and anyone wanting to comment on it can only do so elsewhere, but then their post seems to be unrelated to anything, as the original reference post is not in that location. Hence, they post their response in the 'wrong' spot.

2/ the original poster doesn't know if there are going to be comments, but if so, will need to post their piece twice, once in the reference section, and once in a separate thread to allow others to add their comments. To do so however, requires a lot of presumption that their post will be worth commenting on.

3/ ideally, any post that Quotes an initiating Pinned Post or Replies to a Pinned Post would automatically recreate the pinned post and response in a new thread.

I think the goal you have is admirable, but I think you may find the challenge of it makes it difficult to achieve.

[Cole Parker]

It looks to me to be too complicated to do what you want in the way of posting a recommendation in one place and having the comments elsewhere. It seems to be a multi-faceted problem.

1/ the recommended reference is in a specific pinned location, and anyone wanting to comment on it can only do so elsewhere, but then their post seems to be unrelated to anything, as the original reference post is not in that location. Hence, they post their response in the 'wrong' spot.

2/ the original poster doesn't know if there are going to be comments, but if so, will need to post their piece twice, once in the reference section, and once in a separate thread to allow others to add their comments. To do so however, requires a lot of presumption that their post will be worth commenting on.

3/ ideally, any post that Quotes an initiating Pinned Post or Replies to a Pinned Post would automatically recreate the pinned post and response in a new thread.

I think the goal you have is admirable, but I think you may find the challenge of it makes it difficult to achieve.

I agree with all of these well-thought-out reasons. I realized after I posted my query last night that it shouldn't be in the pinned section, but didn't know where esle to put it so it made sense.

Anyway, I'm posting this to apologize for helping screw up Des' pinned section, and eagerly await his clever solution to this problem, which I know is forthcoming.

C

[DesDownunder]

Thanks Trab and Cole.

Yes I am working on a solution. I need a hammer to make the software more compliant.

So don't blame yourselves for the awkward way I have tried to get the forum to do something it was not really intended to do.

If I lock the pinned topics and only allow the moderators to add references to them, then they will maintain their independence from any discussion. This will provide a constant uncluttered list of topic references, which is the main intention for the Resource Center.

While comments are good and often helpful, they tend to create lengthy threads that hide other references. I think they are better kept for general discussion in the Forum Topics open area (beneath the pinned topics.) That will be the place then for members to recommend items to be placed in the pinned resource topics.

This of course means that members will not be able to add references directly, which I would have preferred for them to be able to do.

However I am willing to put the time in to doing this as I firmly believe our own reference library of links and articles would prove useful for discussions in at least the Writers' Workshop.

A quick link to an item in the Resource topics could save a lot of effort and duplication when discussing topics there as well as other areas.

As a place to look up what other members have found useful, I think it should prove invaluable.

I will stubbornly proceed in this direction to achieve this vision of information for all, as soon as I can.

[Firm Member]

Interesting discussion, and I'm sure the admins will be able to clear things right up...all in good time?

[Graeme]

The reason I posted my dictionary reference (which I noticed The Pecman also recommended, since the URL I gave redirects to the one he gave) as a separate thread was because I thought the way to go would be for members to make recommendations in the non-pinned section, and then these would be "copied" to the pinned threads when/if appropriate. Someone then pinned my thread....

If we take this approach, it means a little more work from the moderators and admins, but I don't honestly expect huge influxes of references on a regular basis. We'll have a bit of work to do initially, but then it should be pretty quiet.

As for Eats, Shoots and Leaves I resisted buying it for a long time, but I eventually got it as a birthday present. I was very favourably impressed. I had been expecting a reasonable dry or lecturing style, but it was really quite entertaining.

[DesDownunder]

Thanks Graeme,

I left your reference pinned as an online Dictionary. It is a good reference. I may merge it later into the Dictionaries Topic.

As you can see I have now arranged for the pinned topics to be locked and the moderators will add the recommendations to those as appropriate in line with what you suggest. It is as you say a little more work, but it should be fine.

[The Pecman]

As for Eats, Shoots and Leaves I resisted buying it for a long time, but I eventually got it as a birthday present. I was very favourably impressed. I had been expecting a reasonable dry or lecturing style, but it was really quite entertaining.

My only slight misgiving was that author Lynne Truss has a decidedly pro-British slant to a lot of her opinions. In fairness to her, though, she does occasionally bring up the correct Americanized phrase or punctuation use, including subtleties like "should the end punctuation appear inside or outside of the quote," and so on.

One thing I really loved about her book was her annoyance with misspellings and bad punctuation in public signs, like sales posters at grocery stores, or movie theater billboard. Those drive me nuts, too.

[DesDownunder]

Movie theatre signs have a long history of being misspelled.

I was 16 working my first job at as an assistant projectionist, when I heard one of the cop hops tell the manager he had misspelled 'tonight' on the chalk board outside the theatre.

The manager explained that he had deliberately spelt the word 'Tonite' because that would bring in business. He further explained he had been taught to do this when he started out as a young assistant manager. "The theory," he told him, "goes like this; a man arrives at work and says to his work fellow workers, "Those idiots at the drive-in theatre have made a spelling error. They have a sign out the front saying *Tonite, Elvis Presley in Blue Hawaii*."

"What?" choruses the other workers, "Blue Hawaii is on tonight?"

"Yes," replies the man, "but they have spelled tonight, T-o-n-i-t-e."

But no one cares they are only interested in the movie." The car hop walked away shaking his head.

Interestingly, the drive-in theatre filled to capacity that night.

At the end of night as we were locking up the theatre, the manager said to an exhausted car-hop, "My sign worked; I told you so."

[Trab]

The same thing seems to apply to La-Z-Boy chairs, as they are filled to capacity as well most times.

An aside: It took me years to figure out the 'fun' in this name, as in Canada we say "Zed", not "Zee" for the letter 'Z'.

[DesDownunder]

Yes Trab, we say Zed in Australia too.

The American pronunciations don't particularly worry the average Aussie, we are quite capable of being bi-lingual and understand proper English, American English and our own Aussie English.

Hmmm that's three isn't it?

So I get that makes your average Aussie a tri-linguist, much like our sexuality, we are tri-sexuals, we will try anything. (within reason and the law of course.)

[Trab]

...we will try anything...

Which is why you make strong beer, right?