BS: Paragraph Breaks

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: Rapparee
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 10:39 PM

y34h 6u7 u d0n7 5p34k l337 d0 u

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 08:11 PM

I know I am a fool - I spell out all my words in SMS text messages..... even use puntc - er punctst... all those little dots...

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 07:40 PM

Did you ever think maybe that's the way they TALK?

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 07:35 PM

If everyone who appreciates proper writing mechanics would just ignore the posts of those who use the no-caps-no-punctuation style, maybe the perpetrators would get the point after a while.

"gee nobodys responding to any of my posts i wonder why maybe itd help if i used a period every now and then"

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 07:35 PM

oh no? we r bttr than u think- u all r jst 2 wordy and

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: John O'L
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 07:17 PM

Yes, agreed, and also, it is becomming harder now for young kids to learn to read because the television educates their concentration span downwards.
(I feel a little self conscious about that sentence. Is it correct? Too bad.)

I help at the local school, listening to kids who are having difficulty learning to read. The single most common problem they have is that they simply can't concentrate for the length of a complex sentence.

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: Mingulay
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 07:07 PM

I think we are more literate and readable because we are mostly from a generation that has not spent it's life and febrile intellectual capacity with a mobile phone in one hand attempting to decipher a garbled and disjointed jumble of numbers and characters purporting to be a text "message".

Luv 2 u all.

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: John O'L
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 06:52 PM

Actually, now that I think of it, Mudcatters are, generally speaking, more literate and readable than people posting to most forums.

(At least the ones I frequent.)

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: John O'L
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 06:45 PM

I hate to put a bummer on it, but I think your hopes are high if you expect the illiterate to suddenly become literate and the careless to suddenly care.

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: Rapparee
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 05:14 PM

Well, that's my typing. I mean, I copied out of a book ferchrissakes! A book. A wireless mechanism for the recording and transmission of knowledge without electricity.

But you're right, it's funny.

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 04:55 PM

It cannot be adhered to with any reasonable degree of intellectual or moral certainty that the inalienable right man possesses to exercise his political preferences by employing his vote in referendums is rooted in anything other than man's own nature, and is, therefore, properly called a natural right. To hole, for instance, that this natural right can be limited externally by making its exercise dependent on a prior condition of ownership of property is to wrongly suppose that man's natural right to vote is somehow more inherent in and more dependent on the property of man than it is on the nature of man. It is obvious that such belief is unreasonable, for it reverses the order of right intended by nature.


But if you had broken the paragraph where it makes sense, you might have see a really funny typo.

:~)

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 03:45 PM

All that erudition, and bifocals too.

I don't even have a Funk and Wagnells, but that's probably my age.

Giok [Who does have an OED]

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: Rapparee
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 03:17 PM

However, Don, the copy I have at home is dog-eared, as is my copy of the AP Style Book. And my copy of a true classic, John O'Hayre's Gobbledygook has gotta go(USGPO, 1966). A quote:

It cannot be adhered to with any reasonable degree of intellectual or moral certainty that the inalienable right man possesses to exercise his political preferences by employing his vote in referendums is rooted in anything other than man's own nature, and is, therefore, properly called a natural right. To hole, for instance, that this natural right can be limited externally by making its exercise dependent on a prior condition of ownership of property is to wrongly suppose that man's natural right to vote is somehow more inherent in and more dependent on the property of man than it is on the nature of man. It is obvious that such belief is unreasonable, for it reverses the order of right intended by nature.

Now, this quote comes from the time of ol' Ben Franklin, who took and rewrote it this way:

To require propert of voters leads us to this dilemma: I own a jackass; I can vote. The jackass dies; I cannot vote. Therefore, the vote represents not me but the jackass.

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: Amos
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 02:39 PM

It's been one of my Bible for forty years. But I ignore it too often.

Giok, there are some things that are so graceful, elegant and perfect inherent in their own natures that they cannot go out of style. Riding a motor-scooter up and down the hills of San Francisco is one of those things.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 02:10 PM

Rapaire, I don't want you to think I mean to impugn your style; you're generally very readable.

But I urge you (and everyone else) to get (if you don't have it) The
Elements of Style, and to actually read it. It's "the Little book" (note cap), which pleasantly and easily sets out an approach to a readable and communicative writing style. Easy and entertaining reading, as I assess it, which illustrates and makes good sense out of good writing habits.

After forty years, I'm on my third battered and dogeared copy. And I've given away a number of copies as gifts.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: Don Firth
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 02:01 PM

Eats, Shoots, and Leaves by Lynne Truss.

This book is highly instructive, and a real snort to read.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: GUEST,so as not to be confused with a peDANT
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 01:57 PM

Yes, Joe, -dant.

:~)

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: Mooh
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 01:54 PM

Agreed!

Some exceptions, like the local Hullite of note, but otherwise Guest's suggestion is valid.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: Rapparee
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 01:44 PM

Ahem. I have a copy of Strunk & White on my desk. I never open it, but I've got it.

So.

Short paragraphs.

With blank lines to indicate paragraphs.

Okay.

I can do that.

Would you also like a syllabic count?

Long words confuse people, you know.

Besides, short words have more punch, are pithier.

I know a whole bunch of words like that. Words with four letters. Words like "four" and "five" and "nine."

Hemingway knew about this. We called him "Ernie." It had fewer syllables than "Hemingway." Ernie used to tell us, "Eschew polysyllabication, it obfuscates your limning." And he was right.

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 01:16 PM

Saw a book about the life of the above mentioned poet that would have had him spinning in his grave.... it was called:

A Life: E.E. Cummings.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: Don Firth
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 01:16 PM

Beautifully illustrated, Bill.

To those inclined to be sloppy in typing their posts:

Other than e. e. cummings' poetry, I know of only one other writer of note who didn't use capitals or punctuation:   

archy.

But he was the soul of a verse libre bard reincarnated in the body of a cockroach, and had to type by climbing up on the frame of Don Marquis's typewriter and diving head first at the letter he wanted to type. Since it was impossible for him to hold down the shift key and type a letter at the same time, he had a good reason for not using capitals. Also, to save labor (and cut down on aspirin consumption), archy eschewed punctuation. But he did dive at the space bar to seperate his phrases and clauses, so what he wanted to say was generally pretty clear.

So unless one is a very talented cockroach, there isn't much excuse for not using capitals and punctuation, other than ignorance and/or laziness.

Also, James Joyce was fairly successful at using a "stream of consciousness" style of writing (although there are those who would argue the point). All too often, those who try to write "stream of consciousness" manage to display little more than a tedious dribble of near comatosity.

If one actually wishes to communicate, one should make use of one's Strunk and White.

What!?? You don't even have a copy of Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White?

Well, that explains a lot!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: Joe Offer
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 01:12 PM

Original message from: Anonymous so as not to be confused with a pe?????

Hmmmm. What's the rest of that word?
Pedant?

I agree, though. Blank spaces between paragraphs and stanzas are very helpful, and you don't have to know how to do <br> line breaks and <p> paragraph breaks any more....

-Joe Offer, pedantically-

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 12:58 PM

Amos good buddy, them's ol' flower power hippy type concepts, the sort of thing that went out of style, just after motor scooters in Sanfran.
Giok ¦¬]

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: Amos
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 12:46 PM

Looks like ya struck a nerve, Guest. Whatever happened to grooving on the Now and going with the flow? Tsk, tsk. :D

Just funning ya, Don.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 11:58 AM

Paragraph breaks AND punctuation, please:

so i dont have to read stupid runon sentences like this which make no effort to note where thoughts change and other manifestations of the authors stream of conciousness get entangled with his barely comprehensible subject and I want this because im selfish and I dont care who knows it so there!

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: Don Firth
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 11:57 AM

Well, tell yah what. Sorry to be school marmish about it, but for the sake of having people actually read what you're trying to say, a little attention to formatting can certainly help the readability of a post. Paragraph breaks (a blank line between paragraphs) and, if not strictly rigorous punctuation, at least reasonable use of capitals when they're called for (beginning of sentences, proper names, etc.).

It's damned frustrating to try to read a post that runs close to a full screen, but it's all one paragraph, with no capitals and practically no punctuation. Oftentimes I just skim posts like that or skip them entirely.

Sure, e. e. cummings didn't use capitals in his poems, but your post ain't a poem (usually), and you ain't e. e. cummings. Okay?

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 11:31 AM

Poor















old



















Soul

























G

























¦¬]

Subject: BS: Paragraph Breaks
From: GUEST,Anonymous so as not to be confused with a pe
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 11:17 AM

Hey gang, help these old tired eyes and brain cells-- can we have posts with SHORT paragaphs....

... and ...

with a blank line in between, puh-leeeeze?????

THANKS!