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m a bit of a

Found at: tellus.strangled.net:70/phlog/on-punctuation

I'm a bit of a stickler for correct punctuation. You might have
noticed. Being a proofreader, I feel I have standards to uphold
here.

		
I mostly manage to. I don't find using proper punctuation
hard--it's become intuitive, and so it doesn't take any extra
effort. I know how to wield a semicolon.

		
Where it breaks down is actually due to peer pressure.

		
In com, the status quo seems to be that sentences begin with an
unpretentious letter and end with a newline (that's all). After
all, textual chat really has more of an affinity with spoken
conversation than it does with written documents. I don't speak
punctuation.

		
I feel obliged to conform to this status quo, but I also feel
obliged to be... correct. Call me a prescriptivist. (I get paid to
be one.) I end up with a different degree of compromise depending
on who's around. Some people maintain more of a semblance of
'standard' written punctuation and capitalisation than I do when
I'm in com. If such a person is around, I end up using mostly
capital letters and full stops. If they're not the only other
person in the room, I'll use capitals and full stops here and
there. If most other people don't, I mostly won't.

		
I guess my punctuation style represents a running average of the
styles of other people in the room.

		
I hope this is the only aspect of my life where I represent a
running average.

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