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Excursions

This, That and A Lot on Punctuation

“I found a great many pieces of punctuation and typography lying around dormant when I came along - and I must say I had a good time using them.” – Tom Wolfe

A lot has been said and suggested by authors, amateur and experienced, on how we should and should not use punctuation. Setting aside the perpetual debates around specific punctuation marks, the importance of punctuation in making writing intelligible for a reader is never in doubt.

This issue features essays that provide a brief history of how punctuation evolved, its significance, some valuable tips and witty guidelines on using the marks.

The Definition and Basic Rules of Punctuation →

Richard Nordquist at ThoughtCo. takes us deep into the meaning and importance of punctuation. More than being an essay about a brief on punctuation, it details the history of punctuation, its relevance before and after the introduction of printing, and the recent trends in the use of punctuation. Dr. Nordquist has it all covered.

The beginnings of punctuation lie in classical rhetoric—the art of oratory. Back in ancient Greece and Rome, when a speech was prepared in writing, marks were used to indicate where—and for how long — a speaker should pause. Until the 18th century, punctuation was primarily related to spoken delivery (elocution), and the marks were interpreted as pauses that could be counted out.

The Comma From Which My Heart Hangs →

Benjamin Samuel at McSweeney’s Internet Tendency describes the great power comma possesses in our writing. Backing his argument with some pertinent examples, he delivers his point with an abundance of wit and tinge of humor that is a signature of every article at McSweeney’s.

If nothing else, one ought to know how to treat a comma. Abandonment or abuse of the comma muddles discourse, and this lack of respect is akin to neglect, to a lack of appreciation, to an unreasonable rejection of the very foundation of all worthy human interactions. (…) It simply cannot be said too often that punctuation, not just the noble comma, is crucial to communication and comprehension. Truly, a poorly constructed sentence can set worlds crumbling, can alter perceptions irreparably.

Tips on Grammar, Punctuation and Style →

“If the rules you learned about commas and semi-colons don’t mean much to you, forget them and try this.” That is how Kim Cooper begins this helpful guide on punctuation published for Writing Center at Harvard University. This is a handy list of suggestions on how one can check the selection of punctuation like commas and semi-colons, dashes and hyphens as part of her writing.

If you don’t want your reader to pause, there shouldn’t be a comma, there, because as, this demonstrates it’s very difficult to figure, out, what you’re saying when your punctuation, makes the sentence unreadable. Your sentences shouldn’t leave your reader hyperventilating from the constant shallow breaths that over-punctuation requires. Nor should they be gasping for breath at the end of a long, unpunctuated sentence. (Consider yourself responsible for your readers’ cardiovascular health.)

Caleb published a short dark story “Swarm Creatures” as part of Carve magazine’s Summer 2020 edition. He has woven the story wonderfully with some intricate, mysterious elements. With his vivid imagination and a fascinating way to word it, he gorgeously mirrors the darkness and the messy calmness of the swarm with mind within the central character.

The swamp is impressive, a gargling pool stretching as far as we can see from our backyard, tall ghostly trees sticking out of it and obscuring the horizon. We’ve been renting the same house two years but never explore too far back, some sense of reverence holding us.

This is a pretty comprehensive guide to punctuation, though primarily focused on the current style of American punctuation, meticulously created by Jordan Penn. It also has clear examples of how American style differs from the British style. In Jordan’s words, he “consulted dozens of authorities, both online and in print. Where the authorities disagree, I either have explained the various positions or have presented the style I believe to be most useful”. This should be a pretty handy reference guide for anyone writing at any level.

One Final Inspiration

Postscript

Have any recommendations or feedback for me? I’d love to hear from you. Just hit reply, or you can even email me.

Thank you for reading and sharing.

-Amit

Is 20 percent project still followed at Google? One where every employee is recommended to spend 80% on the official job and 20% on the project of their choice? I wonder because every time we hear about the success of this particular experiment at Google, we hear about the same old handful of products. Mainly AdWords and Gmail.

Have there been no other successful products from this experiment? If yes, why don't we hear more about them? If no, what has changed at the company? Has it grown too large to back small, hobby-like products? Is the environment not conducive for the small, hacky projects?

Marissa Mayer had famously quipped regarding the project, "I’ve got to tell you the dirty little secret of Google’s 20% time. It’s really 120% time".

Maybe as the companies grow, the employees lose the sense of closeness, the sense of attachment they felt earlier. The sort of dedication that Mayer referred to just can't be expected from an aloof employee.

Twitter is a lossy compression medium. You compress an idea into a few phrases, and people must expand it, often getting something else.

Benedict Evans

The next issue of Slanting Nib & A Keyboard is out now and should be in your inbox if you have already subscribed. It features a few brilliant essays from some well-known voices on the importance and effectiveness of writing styles.

If you haven't yet subscribed, do give it a read online. I appreciate each and every bit of feedback I receive -- it helps me stay motivated to keep doing this every week. I have been extremely delighted with the feedback I have received until now on past issues.

On a personal front, I am reading a lot more to curate each issue of the newsletter and there's nothing more positive that can come out of this whole exercise.

Expressions & Revelations via Style

“I write lustily and humorously. It isn’t calculated; it’s the way I think. I’ve invented a writing style that expresses who I am.” - Erica Jong

I fully concur with that last sentiment from Jong; every writer has, irrespective of what she writes, a unique style. I believe if you have read from a writer enough, doesn’t matter if it is in the form of books, essays or blogs, you can identify who words them.

This issue features a few brilliant essays from some well-known voices on the importance and effectiveness of writing styles.

Hemingway’s Mysterious, Thrilling Style →

Joan Didion wrote an earnest essay in 1998 in The New Yorker featuring some words that Hemingway wrote — and also those that he didn’t. It is an insightful read about a writer who, in Joan’s view, “had in his time made the English language new, changed the rhythms of the way both his own and the next few generations would speak and write and think”.

In September of 1954, Hemingway wrote to Bernard Berenson from Cuba about the adverse effect of air-conditioning on this thing he was doing: “You get the writing done but it’s as false as though it were done in the reverse of a greenhouse. Probably I will throw it all away, but maybe when the mornings are alive again I can use the skeleton of what I have written and fill it in with the smells and the early noises of the birds and all the lovely things of this finca which are in the cold months very much like Africa.”

The Act of Writing →

Paulo Coelho is known for a style of writing which is distinctly spiritual. He, however, does not consider his writing to be about spirituality, “I am free to do something different every time”. It is his apt belief that “every human being on this planet has at least one good story to tell his neighbor” that I firmly associate with.

In this essay, he reflects “on some important items in the process of creating a text”.

Above all else, the writer has to be a good reader. The kind that sticks to academic texts and does not read what others write (and here I’m not just talking about books but also blogs, newspaper columns and so on) will never know his own qualities and defects.
So, before starting anything, look for people who are interested in sharing their experience through words. I’m not saying: “look for other writers”. What I say is: find people with different skills, because writing is no different from any other activity that is done with enthusiasm.

How to Write with Style →

Here’s Kurt Vonnegut again with a few more advice on writing style from his vast treasure trove of published and spoken words. His advice, just as his books, is eternal.

Why should you examine your writing style with the idea of improving it? Do so as a mark of respect for your readers, whatever you’re writing. If you scribble your thoughts any which way, your readers will surely feel that you care nothing about them. They will mark you down as an egomaniac or a chowderhead or, worse, they will stop reading you. The most damning revelation you can make about yourself is that you do not know what is interesting and what is not.

I have been reading Matt since, back when he used to write mostly about technology. Since then, he has gone on to publish some thrilling novels. Matt has a clear mind and an astute way of putting complex thoughts into words. Besides, he has a long list of some profound essays reflecting on his life and some advice on writing & productivity. Here’s an excerpt from one of his essays where he talks about confidence.

Confidence is a little trickier to muster when you’re pre-judged due to the incidental fact of being female, or when your viewpoint can be dismissed as down to uncontrolled emotion, or timidity, or hormones. When perceptions of your physical power become an albatross around your neck, and when the default compliment is not about your abilities, but rather your appearance.

A short, simple app that intends to be “a spellchecker, but for style”. You may decide not to agree with all the suggestions it provides. Nonetheless, it is an extremely valuable editing tool.

Too often, our words are like our thoughts — innumerable and disorganized. Almost any bit of writing could use some cutting.

It is always useful to run your prose through someone who can tell you as a reader which parts are unnecessarily difficult to understand. You can then consciously decide if it is intentional on your part. If so, leave it there. If not, listen to Hemingway. Make it easier for the reader.

One Final Inspiration...

Postscript

Have any recommendations or feedback for me? I’d love to hear from you. Just hit reply, or you can even email me.

Thank you for reading and sharing.

-Amit

Each human being has been granted two qualities: power and gift. Power drives a person to meet his/her destiny, his gift obliges that person to share with others which is good in him/her. A human being must know when to use power, and when to use compassion.

Paulo Coelho

I have unsubscribed from most (all?) of the daily newsletters about news. I am already bombarded with news that's mostly about world's burning. I do not want even my inbox to welcome me all the crazy updates from the world, but especially US. Most newsletters cover that and it's the same news repeated in all. Same essays, editorials from same sources. The Atlantic. NYTimes.

I had already done a similar exercise with tech newsletters. And podcasts. Again, it's same stories that I have already seen someplace else. Why read them again in the inbox? It just fills my newsletter to-read list.

I want to feel relaxed, open to read some meaningful words. Some essays that mean, matter for those who wrote them. Not a quick rewrite of what's already been told zillion times.

I'm being very selective with what I subscibe to now. I want to read something that's heartfelt. Not something that's link log of trite news updates. Most daily newsletters deliver the later.

Proposed Captcha for the AI Age

I recently read this brilliant comic by Zach Weinersmith at SMBC. And the first thought I had was this "has to be the most foolproof way there exists to prove yourself human"

Seriously, I am tired of proving to Google that I'm human by selecting grids with zebra crossings in them. This task has to be a lot easier for bots than it is for me because I suck at it every time.

I think, maybe, just maybe we need some other ways to test if users online are humans. Just test us for what we suck at.

  1. Keep showing us optical illusions and check how we freak out. Our eyes keep making a fool of our minds and we let them. Of course, we are already being crazies by training computers to fall for optical illusions. Why, why?
  2. Show us a street full of people coughing and sneezing around openly and ask a single question "what's the risk that you will get coronavirus if you walk out on this street without a mask?" Apparently, no human will say 100%.
  3. Show the departure time of the flight. Show us the distance to the airport, the traffic en route. Ask us then when should we leave the house. Bots will always make us reach in time. Humans, on the other hand, will be either too early or too late, even when provided with all the data.
  4. Show us a video of people playing basketball and make us count the passes. Then just make us randomly predict when will the pandemic end. If a user selects "before August starts", has to be Human. Yeah, and also show us next the walking, chest-thumping gorilla that we missed in the video.
  5. Just put a simple multiple-choice question, "What will you name some random street?" with one of the options as "I don't know… name it whatever the fuck man". Majority humans apparently will select that.

You get the idea. Don't judge us by our smartness. If there's anything that the last few months have proven, it is that we ain't an intelligent species. It is our dumbness, our frailties that make us humans now.

Don’t Let Micro-Stresses Burn You Out

The problem is that most of us have come to accept micro-stresses as just a normal part of a day. We hardly acknowledge them, but cumulatively they are wearing us down. And what’s worse is that the sources of these micro-stresses are often the people — in and out of work — with whom we are closest.

The point is that these micro-stresses are all routinely part of our day and we hardly stop to consider how they are affecting us, but they add up. They may arise as momentary challenges, but the impact of dealing with them can linger for hours or days.

Harward Business Review

I know the burn out caused by the micro-stresses. It is pretty common especially with enterprise roles. However when you look at the possible relationships that can lead to such frictions, it is only natural that the causes can be, many a times, way closer to home.

A really insightful look at the problem and possible ways to mitigate them.

The third issue of Slanting Nib & A Keyboard newsletter is out today. It features thoughts from a few brilliant minds on what makes writing natural. Be it in a notebook to be relished privately. Or be it published to be critiqued openly. Again, am pretty satisfied with how even this issue has come out. The featured writings are inspiring for me.

These past few weeks have been a great learning experience. When I had started planning for this newsletter around a month back, I gave myself a small target - publish 3 issues. Don't think about subscribers. Don't think about the future or the tone or the structure. Just make sure 3 issues are consistently delivered over 3 weeks and what is included in every issue excites me. I feel I have managed that.

With the first checkpoint reached, I don't intend to stop yet. I want to continue towards the next goal - set the tone.