The Quotable Guide to Punctuation

Stephen Spector is professor of English and former department chair at SUNY Stony Brook University. He has published eight books, dealing mainly with religion, politics, and language. He has received numerous prizes, fellowships, and grants, has been a Visiting Scholar at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, and has held research fellowship appointments at the National Humanities Center and Wesleyan University.

• IntroductionPunctuation-Who Needs It? 1: Defining Some Really Basic Terms2: Apostrophes3: Colons4: Commas5: Dashes6: En Dashes7: Exclamation Points!!!!8: However: How to Get the Punctuation Right Every Time9: Hyphens10: Parentheses and Square Brackets11: Periods 12: Ellipses 13: Abbreviations, Contractions, Numbers, and Dates 14: "The Angry, Aggressive Period"15: Question Marks16: Quotation Marks17: Quotes within Quotes18: Run-on Sentences19: Semicolons20: Starting Sentences with And or But

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.