Writing Skills

I received this email:Subject: Writing SkillsA panda walks into a café. 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, at the door. '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.'

I responded to the email:

Subject: Re: Writing Skills

Writing skills are very important, indeed.  But consider this: If the manual had read "Panda, eats shoots and leaves," when the creature entered the restaurant and placed his order for a sandwich, his waiter or perhaps the cook would have said "No, panda, the manual says you only eat shoots and leaves. You may not have a sandwich, salad, or anything beyond shoots and leaves."

Maybe at this denial the panda would have left the establishment quietly, the correct syntax thereby preventing senseless killing - but we could also assume the irritation would have duly infuriated him, and left the panda quite hungry, and possibly even more intent on savagery. He may have decided to express his dismay, caused by the proper use of grammar, by extending his violence beyond the restaurant.

I suppose my point is:  It is difficult to know when to sharpen a pencil, and when to just write in crayon, or in this case, when to carefully choose words and punctuation, and when not to. The outcome of the message, once received, is often still left at the discretion of the panda, regardless of its form or content.