"Introduction: The Seventh Sense"

I really like how Truss perceives punctuation. She talks about what other writers think punctuation is and why it's so important for readers. Punctuation is viewed as the stitching and traffic signals of language. Also, punctuation relates to manners, and "punctilious" and "punctuation" are derived from the same root. Punctuation can really affect the whole meaning of a sentence, illustrated with her example of: A woman, without her man, is nothing. AND A woman: without her, man is nothing. Punctuation plays a major role in the meaning of that particular example. One example is stating how a woman is nothing, and the other one is stating how a man is nothing.
I agree that punctuation dictates the way in which we read as well as the meaning of what we read. Truss is right when she says how punctuation is the good manners of writing. I think that punctuation also affects the reader's pace as well as allows room for description for writers. For example, writing a long wordy sentence about a list of things requires commas, and without those commas, the particular sentence would make no sense. I am a grammar fanatic so when I write, I like to make sure I use perfect grammar including variety of punctuation marks.