Today there is a snowstorm of books on grammar; they are selling like $10 ski tickets would sell. The rebirth of interest in effective writing is born out of necessity. "To your readers you are as you write," says Sierra Sam of Tahoe City.

One tested example on the grammar circuit is the challenge of this collection of words: A woman without her man is nothing.

At best, any meaning is vague. The collection needs punctuation if it is to carry the message of its writer.

She or he may mean: Without a man, a woman is nothing. Or the writer's intention could well be: A woman: without her, man is nothing. Absent a clue or two, the reader can not solve the mystery--the writer will not communicate.

Punctuation is not a matter of snobbery. "It is a system of printers' marks that has aided the clarity of the written word for the past 500 years," says stickler Lynne Truss, author of the best-selling Eats, Shoots & Leaves.

Apostrophes, commas, semi-colons, correct spelling, colons...they are all tools in a writer's toolbox.