From Lynn Truss, #3

This is another charming description about punctuation from the 2009 Eats, Shoots and Leaves calendar, by Lynne Truss, April 10.

On the page, punctuation performs its grammatical function, but in the mind of the reader it does more than that. It tells the reader how to hum the tune.

When I was home schooling and trying to explain the “optional” uses of the comma, where its use is solely determined by the writer as to the required pause, this would have been a good way to explain it. What do you, the author, want the reader to do? How do you want the reader to hum the tune? That’s how you think about those yes-or-no commas.

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