Ten cent advice for the day.

[amireal]

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

Comments

[fyrie]

Amen to that!

[amireal]

*grin*

I'm just...

Yes.

Thank you.

[mireille719]

*worships at your feet*

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?

[amireal]

You know, I get the need for some that in the course of text messaging I really do.

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.

[mireille719]

Oh, yeah. I get using that sort of thing in text messaging, where you have a limited character length and a keypad that isn't the easiest to type on.

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.

[mireille719]

Oh, wow, when I make an HTML error, I make an HTML error. That last paragraph should have read:

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.

[20thcenturyvole]

Aw, has someone been abusing the English language in your presence? Go down to your nearest Army Surplus shop and see if they have any long-range weapons. And army boots. The ones with the steel toecaps. No, it's never a bad thing to be a Grammar Nazi. Kick them, Agent Amireal. Kick them hard!

[maryavatar]

Yes, yes, yes, and yes. I got into a whole stupid debate with someone a few months ago about the paragraph thing. She kept saying 'But that's not how it's done in books. I've never seen a book or magazine that had double-spaced paragraphs.' She seemed to be completely unaware that the internet is not a book.

[kellifer_fic]

'But that's not how it's done in books.

*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

[maryavatar]

Yep, I pointed that out. Her response... 'But I'm not submitting to a publisher. It doesn't have to be in submission format. It can just be uploaded to look like a page from a book.'

I gave up at that point.

[fairestcat]

Oh god, that kind of thing drives me crazy.

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."

[emrinalexander]

Off Topic - but - check your gmail - I just sent the DOOM document. It's an attachment, let me know if you can't open it.