The New Well-tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the DoomedIn The New Well-Tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed, Karen Elizabeth Gordon "manages to make the period, question mark, exclamation point, comma, and semicolon sound friendly instead of forbidding" (New York Times). This essential guide to grammar rescues punctuation from the perils of boredom, with wholly original explanations of the rules, whimsical graphics, and utterly unforgettable characters. Gordon teaches you clearly and simply where to place a comma and how to use an apostrophe. Gradually, as you master the elusive slashes, dots, and dashes that give expression to our most perplexing thoughts, you will find yourself in the grip of a bizarre and bemusing comedy of manners. Witty, saucy, and utterly unforgettable, The New Well-Tempered Sentence is a must-have for anyone who has ever despaired of opening a punctuation handbook but whose sentences despair without one. |
Contents
The Exclamation Point | 1 |
The Question Mark | 8 |
The Period | 15 |
The Comma | 21 |
The Semicolon | 59 |
The Colon | 66 |
The Hyphen | 76 |
The Dash | 85 |
Quotation Marks | 95 |
Italics | 105 |
Parentheses | 112 |
Brackets | 120 |
The Slash | 125 |
The Apostrophe | 130 |
Ellipses | 139 |
Other editions - View all
The New Well-tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the ... Karen Elizabeth Gordon No preview available - 2003 |
The New Well-tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the ... Karen Elizabeth Gordon No preview available - 1993 |
Common terms and phrases
adjectives adverbial phrase Alyosha Amplochacha apostrophe appositive Azuriko ballerina beasts Blegue Brackets called Christopher Smart Cold Comfort Farm colon comma comes compound conjunctive adverbs Cowboys dance dash Deus ex machina Dictionary door dressing duchess Ellipses exclamation mark exclamation point express eyes face Finnegans Wake flannel flash follows fondled his lapel Gallimauf glass hands heart hyphen independent clauses Intimate Apparel italicized italics Jean-Pierre Karen Elizabeth Gordon knee letters look Loona mark or exclamation mask mastodons Max Jacob Moostracht night nightgown Nimbo noun numbers omitted parentheses period possessive punctuation marks Queneau question mark Quotation marks enclose quoted Raymond Queneau Rosie and Nimrod Scheherazade semicolon separate SERIAL COMMA shoes sitting slash socks Sola Crespusci spelled Stella Gibbons story tence thought Timofey tion Too-Too LaBlanca tutu usually verb waiting wearing Well-Tempered Sentence words Yury Olesha