A Dot By Any Other Name Is Still a Dot

His nine year old hands had mastered his ‘Eagle Academic 165’ skinny yellow pencil by the Fall of 1969 – the word ‘BONDED’ (whatever that meant) was pressed into the soft yellow paint of all wooden pencils (known to him) – he thought ‘BONDED’ pencils must have been very important – why else would they have pressed every pencil with this (official sounding) word.

He loved to write or doodle on the thick course pages of his ‘Indian Head’ writing tablet – he had personalized the front and back of his tablet with weeks of elaborate doodling – he knew all twenty-six letters (as a nine year old should) – capital and little letters (lower case as we call them today) – he had learned them a couple of years back and really liked the way his letters looked when he fashioned them with his ‘bonded’ pencil – letters were easy, but he really worked hard at matching their size and spacing – he genuinely thought the appearance of his work outweighed the actual words he wrote –  great care went into what he crafted on the lined pages of his well-used writing tablet – he didn’t know why the appearance was so important, except that he just liked the way it looked (all even and symmetrical).

His written work required great concentration – his eye was mysteriously drawn to any misshaped or miss-sized letters or words – his mind would not let him leave these misshaped or miss-sized efforts uncorrected – they had to be corrected – this left his work frequently pock marked with pinkish eraser tracks, that sometimes ate holes in his paper – he could write fairly well, minus spelling (spelling was stupid) and cursive writing (also stupid) – he didn’t give his cursive much effort – no particular reason, cursive was just stupid and not very uniform – using correct tense (present or past) or correct use of plural was also stupid – not as stupid a cursive, but they ran a close second – worse than cursive, spelling or tense was punctuation – he hated punctuation almost as much as he hated the attention teachers gave punctuation as they evaluated his work – it was just one more thing to distract his ability to neatly craft and align his efforts – yes, punctuation was also stupid.

He liked to write and he liked to draw but he hated for anyone to see what he wrote or drew – (in his mind) no matter what he wrote or drew… it was never-ever-ever good enough for any ‘grown-up’ that happened to see or evaluate his efforts – especially when it came to parents or his teachers (yes, grown-ups were also stupid) – misspelled or improper use of a word never went unnoticed or pointed out – the guaranteed absolute threat and fear of critique and correction drove him to keep his work as concealed as possible – the critique and correction infuriated him – parents and teachers… they never noticed the point or true purpose of his writings or how neat and well aligned it was.

Imagine the joy this nine year old (now an adult) felt when the US Army began to encourage Soldiers to modify all tactical (means combat) writing to make it fast and clear regardless of correct spelling, tense, sentence structure or punctuation – What? Throw out the writer’s rule book? – the military was quickly evolving into digital communication methods (i.e. mIRC Chat, BFT, FBCB-2, etc. google them) which require improvised, fast and clear methods – basically logical over analytical – voice (FM secure-net radio) communications were still the main method of communicating, but it’s quickly being augmented with (newer and newer) hand-held, vehicle and equipment mounted communication devices used for clarity, speed and effectiveness – voice communications often miss pronounced numbers (for grid coordinates, vehicle/equipment type, etc.), details and critical data that could now be tapped out with greater clarity and no (real) lost time – text, twitter, email, chat like social media methods were effectively taking over voice communications.

Today, we live in a world that we can communicate almost as fast with our hands as we can with our voices –  but, this evolution from traditional writing standards has meet a great deal of opposition – is it possible, can we  ‘allow’ ourselves to improvise/modify our writing standards – from the military’s perspective (and mine) spelling, tense, structure and (the dreaded) punctuation no longer has value against these more effective and simplified communication methods – these new communication methods are now expected and highly encouraged in military combat circles – and all at once… all over the world tens of thousands of frustrated nine year old future writers, sighed a collective sigh of relief as the paradigm shifts – the standard of what ‘right’ looks like, shifted – just a little bit, but it did shift (for better or for worse).

Please don’t get it twisted, correct writing skills still play a huge part in military communications – AR 25-50 (the Army Regulation for Preparing and Managing Correspondence – again, google it) still governs non-tactical printed formal communications – in its proper place, formal/structured writing does make sense – but, outside of formal writings, email, text and other digital communications in tactical and non-tactical venues allow non-traditional, non-structured writing methods to be a part of our everyday communications – which makes more sense than trying to force structure into a process that clearly proved structure is no longer required (my sister, the college professor is freaking out right now).

I shared all that to help illustrate why my writing methods are what they are (poorly structured syntax and no punctuation) – although I do know (for the most part) how to write correctly, I choose not to for all the same reasons the military allowed itself to shift away from traditional writing methods – clarity, ease and results – if this new unstructured communication method (in spite of itself) is clear, and if the point/purpose of the communication is effectively translated… what’s the big deal?

Verbal communication is inherently free of punctuation with the natural application of breaks in communication – often breathing (very important) is a reason for breaks – a pause for effect (dramatic) – perhaps to gather more thoughts – or to simply encourage others to join the string of conversation – plus, our voices can change in so many ways clarifying our meanings – a question sounds different from a statement even if the actual words are exactly the same – oral dialogue laced with emotions sounds uniquely different from the same dialogue absent of any emotion – the distinctiveness’s can be heard and digested by our (amazing) minds as a clear cohesive thought or purpose behind the verbal communication – our minds absorb verbal communications all day every day – these absorbed context clues and consideration factors are instantaneously added to our mind’s data base of communication styles and methods – the military benefited from on our mind’s amazing abilities, and it simplified the written process much in the same way social media has.

Soooo… what’s my point – exactly, a point can also be known as a dot – a dot is the (profoundly significant) symbol of the punctuation, a ‘period’ – which is the simplest example of the use of punctuation in written communication – a point, or a dot (or period) is the accepted way to illustrate (in written communication) the end of a sentence, a pause or the end of a thought.

The mind (for me) is the secret sauce that gives the dot it’s purpose – our minds can factor a dot (a period), a comma, a semicolon, a colon etc., etc. to mean a pause for one reason or another – yes, there are specific purposes and reasons for a specific pause, but at the end of the day a pause is a pause – our minds can manage that pause without requiring a deeper evaluation of written symbols to formulate the meaning/purpose of the text – perhaps, the absence of that (all important) dot will not actually knock the planets out of alignment (as some have been known to profess).

My voice is not everyone’s voice, but on behalf of all nine-year-old fledgling writers (past and present) perhaps traditional/structured writing methods may just be a little cumbersome, overrated and overdue for a make-over.

Perhaps I’m just lazy or freakishly selfish – perhaps I’m a disgruntled former nine-year-old venting labored and ancient frustrations – Ernest Hemingway wrote, “My attitude toward punctuation is that it ought to be as conventional as possible.” – at the risk of casting shade on an American writing icon, I choose to ignore normal punctuation in favor of leveraging the humble (and less used) dash – when you come across a dash ( – ) in these writings, simply pause (or breath as required), trust your amazing mind and enjoy the ride.