Homework Help: English

Posted by Samantha on Monday, November 12, 2007 at 2:37pm.

Are the "Notes on Punctuation" by Lewis Thomas actually about punctuation? We were asked to "close read" it and I'm sure the author had other messages to get out other than punctuation. I looked Lewis Thomas up on google and found that he was quite into biology. Can anyone read those notes and give me his/her thoughts? I'm not trying to get anyone to do my homework, just see other's thoughts as I am quite curious about things like this.

English - Ms. Sue, Monday, November 12, 2007 at 2:47pm
Lewis Thomas wrote on many subjects. I believe that he intended this to be a humorous essay, as opposed to most very dry and boring explanations of punctuation.

Other teachers may want to comment on this essay --

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/punctuation.html

http://www.todayinsci.com/T/Thomas_Lewis/ThomasLewis-Quotations.htm
English - Writeacher, Monday, November 12, 2007 at 3:08pm
Oh, that first article is marvelous. You can tell in the first paragraph that it's intended to be humorous -- all those unclosed parenthetical statements -- until the end of the paragraph when he closes them all with multiple closing parenthesis marks!! The rest of that essay follows suit. How much fun is that?!

And the quotations ... Love 'em!

=)
English - GuruBlue, Monday, November 12, 2007 at 4:05pm
I love his substitutions for punctuation marks.. they are a hoot! That essay is just plain fun. Some essays are only for that purpose... to take something totally without humor and play with it.
English - Tanya, Tuesday, September 30, 2008 at 4:57pm
Where should quotation marks be place in the sentence below?

Study your spelling, said Dad.
English - tanya/math116, Monday, August 23, 2010 at 3:35pm
,said,"Dad". Tanya you're an idiot,said,"the other student".

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