The Delia Smith approach to punctuation - no previous knowledge needed.

Getting the Point takes you step by step through

• all the punctuation marks
• what each one does
• common mistakes and how to avoid them
• important areas which other books don't cover in detail like capitals, dialogue and how to write a report
• quizzes, plus answers, at every stage
• three entertaining mini novels, Casanova on Love, Tales of the Whole Nut Café and Dragon Deeds, which run through the book

and much more.

Casanova and the lady who danced beautifully from Commas, Chapter 3

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What can this book do for you?

• Improve your promotion prospects
  
  For managers and employees who need to be able to write professional-standard emails, letters, reports or proposals for work

• Improve your grades
  
  For school and university students who need to be able to write quality essays and assignments

• Improve your students
  
  For teachers, lecturers and trainers who need a book to recommend to their students to help improve their writing skills

• Improve your chances of being published
  
  For aspiring and established writers and journalists who need a helping hand to get their book/article up to scratch

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How to buy

Getting the Point, A Panic-Free Guide to English Punctuation for Adults

by Jenny Haddon and Elizabeth Hawksley £9.99 ISBN 0-86315-567-7

Available from John Sandoe Books, Amazon.co.uk and Barnes & Noble

Also direct from Floris Books at www.florisbooks.co.uk

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Who Wrote this Book?

Jenny Haddon took a degree in English at Oxford and then worked for the Bank of England, primarily as a bank regulator responsible for overseas banks.

Throughout the 90s she worked as consultant, mainly to the IMF and World Bank, in the former Communist bloc and the Gulf States. She was a member of the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission for four years.

Throughout her life she has written novels, sometimes as Sophie Weston and is published in 24 languages.

www.jennyhaddon.com

Elizabeth Hawksley has a degree in English and American Studies from the University of Sussex; a PGCE from the Institute of Education, University of London; and an MA in Victorian Studies (with Distinction) from Birkbeck.

Elizabeth has taught both English and Creative Writing. She has written and directed for various fringe theatre companies and her plays have been performed at such venues as Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court, London; the Oxford Playhouse and the Edinburgh Festival. She has had 13 historical novels published.

Between them they have published 60 novels. In 2005 they clocked up over 90,000 library borrowings.

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What Makes this Book Different?

Elizabeth

Readability.

The rules are all there but the book has other things going for it as well. I think readers will be amused by the stories we use as examples - and Belinda Bubblewit, the (unpublished) romantic novelist whose Love and Lucasta's Lord demonstrates all too clearly What Not To Do.

We've highlighted common mistakes, too. So if you use the book for quick reference, it is easy to see if you've got it right and, if not, how to correct it.

Jenny

It's practical but not dogmatic. We explain why punctuation works the way it does, instead of laying down arbitrary rules.

That's why we put together the Learner Driver's Guide, which compares punctuation marks to braking distances. It's easy to grasp and it helps you choose the punctuation marks which will make your meaning clear.

For the same reason, we've put together an example of how to organise ideas into logical order and divide them into paragraphs in our Train to Edinburgh. We think that will be equally useful to students and people in business, in fact anyone who has to write essays, formal reports or business letters.

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The Sofa Chat

Elizabeth

We've all seen the headlines shrieking 'Punctuation in Peril' but it was Lucy, one of my bright A level students, who brought it home to me. 'You mean there are rules for commas? I thought you just sprinkled them about like black pepper on pizza.' Er, no, Lucy.

Later, the class passed their stories round for reading out loud and there was a surreal moment when Ben's neighbour read out, 'That will wake the dead professor.'

We all blinked. Had his campus romp suddenly turned into a ghost story?

'No,' said Ben, grabbing back his pages, 'I meant, "That will wake the dead, Professor."'

Ah.

Then Ant, a keen Creative Writing student, said, 'What is a paragraph?'

They were hungry for help.

So Jenny and I mulled it over and thought about Delia Smith: this is an egg; this is what happens when you boil it. To keep it soft, you take it off after four minutes, to make it hard enough to take on a picnic . . . . That's what these students needed for punctuation. So that's what we wrote.

Jenny

Maddy, a trainee teacher rang me in a panic. She had bought Eats, Shoots and Leaves to sort out her punctuation for class. 'It's only made things worse,' she wailed. 'There's even more to go wrong than I thought!'

Lynne Truss herself, of course, warns right from the start that her book 'doesn't instruct about punctuation'. It's great fun - but it sure as heck makes people jumpy!

'Think about why you punctuate,' I suggested. 'It's the written equivalent of waving your hands about. Your punctuation shows the reader how you would have spoken, if you were talking face to face. '

That got rid of the panic. After that, she found that the rules were relatively easy.

When you are in the same room with someone, they can ask you questions or make you repeat something if they don't understand first time. They can't ask questions of a book or report. So writing is a one shot game. If the reader doesn't understand, he (or she) will probably give up. Punctuate clearly and don't lose them!

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