Help a Thief!: And Other Misadventures in Punctuation

Author: Caroline Taggart

Number of Pages: 192

The trouble with punctuation – well, ones of the troubles, anyway – is that too many of the experts suggest leaving it to the writer’s judgement. What use is that if you’ve simply never been taught the difference between a colon and a semicolon, or where those wretched apostrophes go? Caroline Taggart, who has made a name for herself expounding on the subjects of grammar, usage and words generally (and who for decades made her living putting in the commas in other people’s work), takes her usual gently humorous approach to punctuation. She points out what matters and what doesn’t; why using six exclamation marks where one will do is perfectly OK in a text but will lose you marks at school; why hang glider pilots in training really need a hyphen; and how throwing in the odd semicolon will impress your friends. Sometimes opinionated but never dogmatic, she is an ideal guide to the (perceived) minefield that is punctuation. ‘Engagingly written, the book is highly readable and will make you think about the way you use punctuation – and that’s got to be a good thing’ – Parents in Touch