Punctuation heroine launches website

Eats, Shoots & Leaves author comes, online

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Music and Media, 20th September 2006 08:59 GMT

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Militant punctuation campaigner Lynne Truss, author of the splendid Eats, Shoots & Leaves, is inviting concerned citizens to contribute outrages against the English language to her new website: www.lynnetruss.com.

Truss's 2003 bestseller has done much to alert the world to the savage punctuational beating which careless writers are administering to our beloved mother tongue. She admitted to Reuters: "It seems I have ruined many lives by instilling in many more people the misery of always noticing these things."

The author fingered electronic media as the main culprit for linguistic laxity, telling Reuters that youngsters' increasing use of text messaging and email meant they "no longer focused on good writing style". This "destruction of prose" was, she added, a cause for concern.

Truss's website opened for business on Friday, and to date carries just one fine example of the effect of misplaced punctuation - "GOATS CHEESE SALAD ... Tomatoes, onions, goats, cheese." - although we're sure readers will be delighted to forward other howlers. ®

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