1. Punctuation isn't just something extra to annoy us. It's there because the written word comes without so many of the cues that the spoken word is inherently littered with. Punctuation is about helping the person who's going to read what you wrote understand it. It's about readability, it's about infusing voice, and rythmn and inflection into
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I'm just...
Yes.
Thank you.
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Seriously, these things are about making it easier for people to read what you're saying. Why is it that a large percentage of people seem to have something against being understood?
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But once you get down to, oh, I don't know, sending me a long sevral paragraph email that's feedback of one of my fics and includes an attempt at some fairly indepth analysis?
It's time to break out those extra keystrokes.
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I get using it in IMs/chat, because if you're a slow typist, abbreviations and so on will make it easier to hold a real-time conversation. (I also remember trying to send IMs on AOL at 1200 bps, and yes, it was much easier to send short messages.)
But e-mails? LJ posts that you want people to read and comment on Fiction? Find your shift key, learn at least a few punctuation symbols, separate your paragraphs, and spell out your words. Please.
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But e-mails? LJ posts that you want people to read and comment on? Fiction? Find your shift key, learn at least a few punctuation symbols, separate your paragraphs, and spell out your words. Please.
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*throws up hands* Argh! Does she realise that's how you have to *submit* to publishers though? The books themselves aren't double-spaced but if you send in a manuscript that isn't, it's not even going to get looked at... :P
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I gave up at that point.
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I read a story recently that was actually fairly decent, but the thing was I very nearly didn't read it because it was formatted as if it were a book or paper, with no spaces between paragraphs.
I actually looked at it when it was posted and clicked back without reading because I usually don't even bother trying to read stuff that's formatted that badly, but then it got recced on my friendslist and so I went back and gave it a shot.
I ended up leaving the author feedback that basically said, "good story, but you've probably lost a lot of readers with your formatting, I know you nearly lost me, here's how it should look."
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