A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, and then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air. "Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder. "I'm a panda," he says, at the door. "Look it up." The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation. "PANDA. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."
Lynne Truss is a UK journalist and writer, well towards national-treasure status. Her book on punctuation has become a surprising best-seller. Truss's contention is that punctuation actually matters, and writes in a compelling and amusing style to prove her point. Did you know that grammar could be this much fun?
Punctuation is highly relevant to the Internet. The print media, by and large, still realize that good punctuation appears professional, and employ proof-readers and sub-editors for this purpose. So much on the Internet, however, is added without thought to proof-reading at all. B J Fogg, in Persuasive Technology: Using Computers to Change What We Think and Do, points out that the perceived credibility of a website - a subjective judgement that people make as they visit - is based on a range of factors including adherence to good spelling and punctuation.
The book is available in UK and UK from Amazon and many other online/high-street bookstores:
Amazon UK
Amazon USA