
A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons. "Why?" asks the confused, surviving waiter amidst the carnage, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder. "Well, I'm a panda," he says. "Look it up." The waiter turns to the relevant entry in the manual and, sure enough, finds an explanation. "Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."
From "Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" by Lynn Truss
Most of us tend to let bad grammar and incorrect sentence structure slide by. But if any formal communication must happen then good grammar is of the highest importance. How many times have you not been able to communicate correctly, when what you've said or written was misinterpreted or misunderstood? Good grammar is essential to make certain that ideas and information, are never lost in translation. Communication, both verbal and written, is key in any social or formal setting. For any interaction to take place, proper communication is important.
A simple sentence with incorrect punctuation can completely alter a sentence. For instance the sentence; "Let's eat grandma" and "let's eat, grandma", can have entirely two different meanings. The first one could implicate that they are about to eat their grandmother, while the second one states that they are asking their grandmother to join them for a meal.
Here are a couple of reasons to why is it important to improve your grammar:
To avoid any mass confusion or misinterpretation of your write up, much like the punctuating panda, here are a couple of ways you can improve your English grammar:
And for everything else, you've got Lanquill!