Is there a punctuation error in "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" by Lynne Truss?

Question

recently purchased the first trade paperback printing (April 2006) of this book. On page 18, the author is discussing some anectodal research. Following is a quote from the book:

But we had evidently stumbled into Grammar Greek Alley, and there was nothing we could do. "Of course I punctuate my text messages, I did A-level English," one young man explained, with a look of scorn.

My question is this: Is it incorrect to place a comma between the two independent clauses "Of course I punctuate my text messages" and "I did A-level English,"? Should it be a period or a semi-colon? I was taught that separating two independent clauses with a comma was called a "comma splice" and is incorrect. From my understanding the author is quoting what was heard and is not quoted from any text the speaker had written. Please enlighten me. Thank you.

I am asking because this is supposed to be the authoritative book about punctuation!

Thank you Quatt47 and Vince. I was actually referring to a passage in the book and not to the title.

Answer 1

You are right. It should be punctuated with a period (and capital letter) or a semicolon. Oh well!

Answer 2

The quote 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' is from a rather rude joke about a panda jumping through a window in Australia, eating all the food on the table that the wife has prepared for her husband's dinner and masturbating before jumping back out of the window. When the husband comes in and can't believe the mess he looks up 'PANDA' in his dictionary where it says : Panda: Eats shoots and leaves.

It is a play on words so the punctuation in the title is a way of using the same words as the dictionary definition to mean something completely different.


To be grammatically correct you could write it

'Eats, Shoots, and Leaves.'
or
'Eats, Shoots and Leaves.'

Answer 3

It's not an error. The point is that, with the comma, the meaning of the statement is changed. With the comma, the panda eats, THEN shoots something before finally leaves the premisis. Without the comma, it describes what the panda eats.