Description: Semicolon : The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark, Paperback by Watson, Cecelia, ISBN 0062853066, ISBN-13 9780062853066, Brand New, Free shipping in the US “Delightful.” —Mary Norris, The New Yorker A page-turning, existential romp through the life and times of the world’s most polarizing punctuation mark The semicolon. Stephen King, Hemingway, Vonnegut, and Orwell detest it. Herman Melville, Henry James, and Rebecca Solnit love it. But why? When is it effective? Have we been misusing it? Should we even care? In Semicolon, Cecelia Watson charts the rise and fall of this infamous punctuation mark, which for years was the trendiest one in the world of letters. But in the nineteenth century, as grammar books became all the rage, the rules of how we use language became both stricter and more confusing, with the semicolon a prime victim. Taking us on a breezy journey through a range of examples—from Milton’s manuscripts to Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letters from Birmingham Jail” to Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep—Watson reveals how traditional grammar rules make us less successful at communicating with each other than we’d think. Even the most die-hard grammar fanatics would be better served by tossing the ruls and learning a better way to engage with language. Through her rollicking biography of the semicolon, Watson writes a guide to grammar that explains why we don’t need guides at all, and refocuses our attention on the deepest, most primary value of language: true communication.
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End Time: 2025-01-03T13:27:05.000Z
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Book Title: Semicolon : The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark
Number of Pages: 224 Pages
Language: English
Publication Name: Semicolon : the Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark
Publisher: HarperCollins
Item Height: 0.5 in
Subject: Grammar & Punctuation, Linguistics / Sociolinguistics, Composition & Creative Writing
Publication Year: 2022
Item Weight: 5.1 Oz
Type: Textbook
Author: Cecelia Watson
Item Length: 7.1 in
Subject Area: Language Arts & Disciplines
Item Width: 5 in
Format: Trade Paperback
