Listen to the English Teacher

Today, September 24th, is national punctuation day, and what better way to celebrate than to take a look at the origins of said punctuation. In Survival of the Fittest, Nicholson Baker makes a detailed and somewhat humorous approach to the history of punctuation and its changing nature. As the title implies, Baker is viewing punctuation's history as a type of evolution with the allusion do Charles Darwin and his controversial statements.

Baker introduces the topic in a tangible manner by starting out with common terms such as the comma, space and capital letter. By doing this, Baker makes us put our image of punctuation in our head. This helps Baker's ideas of punctuation's change easier to understand since the reader simply has to compare the image that he already has in his head with the image that Baker is going to impose.

Baker begins the comparison in a simple manner by picking the most recent mark first: the semicolon. Since it is the newest, it has the least history. In fact, most of the history isn't even about the semicolon itself but previous symbols that looked similar. A relationship based mostly on appearance helps the reader by giving him an easy comparison while he develops the mentality necessary for what is to come.

Another tool used by Baker is comedy. By inserting small, humorous segments in his writing such as the emoticon rant and the describing of legal punctuation as fashionable, Baker becomes more likable to the reader, and by gaining the favour of his readers, Baker facilitates the understanding of his teachings. People are generally more interested in what people they like say, and by paying more attention, they learn better.

The third tool that Baker uses is examples. Baker never delivers a point without evidnece to proove it. Whether it is the use of the "that-comma" or the irritating simleys, Baker always has an example up his sleeve. This gives Baker great credibility, another quality that most people look for in a teacher.

With this complete arsenal, Baker is able to easily proceed to destroy any idea that you had over punctuation being something concrete making you doubt your own language. What are the actual standards of punctuation? Will these change in the future? What about the Oxford comma? Will there be someone who will calm all this chaos? Not likely. Baker has proven that this is a quite difficult task since "a full explanation would have to include everything -- Gustav Stickley, Henry Ford, Herbert Read, Gertrude Stein, Norbert Weiner, Harold Geneen, James Watson, Saint Strunk, and especially The New Yorker's Miss Elanor Gould"(15), and with that evidence, Baker's argument is going to be pretty tough to beat.