communication. community. cognition.
Syntext
I love figuring out how we figure things out. That’s the joy of having a five-year-old… you get to see everything through a pair of unjaded eyes. But every so often, you get a chance to revisit something with a wiser brain than you had before.
The example that comes to mind is the syntax we use in written communication to emphasize a point. We have bold and italics and underlines. In a past age, we had ALL CAPS. AND WE HAVE NET-ETIQUETTE THAT FROWNS ON SUCH. The latter example aside, we code those words as <strong>bold</strong> and <em>italics</em> and <u>underlines</u>. Or we have advanced editors do the coding for us.
What has set us back is the proliferation of instant messages, SMS on the cell, and blog comments where you are limited in your coding. How do you go about specifying your emphasis in plain text?
Ask Travis Bickle:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Anyway, the emphasis is important, even if it gets lost in written communication. That’s why – in my humble opinion – so many of us have improvised with our own syntax for expression. But how do we code the informal information so it can be understood without a key?
How DO you go about specifying your emphasis in plain text?
How DO *YOU* go about specifying your emphasis in PLAIN text?
Two very different questions. The first is a question of the process. The second is an entreaty to ask how a particular individual can work without html tags. And the second also has a hidden help – a clue for unraveling the code. It has a wrapper.
The DO YOU in caps hints at an equality, but the *’s around YOU elevates it to a yet-higher level. I’m willing to bet that most of you didn’t need an explanation – it just never occurred to you that any encoding/decoding was going on. It has become second nature to many who have traded the convenience and speed of text messaging for the uncertainty that plain text communicates. Not only did most of us do the decoding without conscious thought – we also recognized the need for the encoding without a prompt. It’s the kind of thing you can take for granted – but makes teaching a five-year-old that much easier.
(Maybe I can get Tim to weigh in on this…)
[tags]Ike Pigott, Occam’s Razr, language, syntax, Taxi Driver, html, sms, text messaging, codes[/tags]
| Print article | This entry was posted by Ike on July 6, 2007 at 7:42 am, and is filed under Communication, Language. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
No trackbacks yet.
Space and Time
about 2 months ago - 5 comments
How space affects a woman’s perception of time. Conclusion: Apparently, space increases overall satisfaction.
Adrenalinholics Anonymous
about 4 months ago - 7 comments
If we can’t get what we need, we’ll grow our own. (More from the mcarp archives… the prophetic genius and brilliance are his; the ones/zeros, pixels, pictures and subheads and pull-quotes are mine.) This is the very last of the mcarp essays, written over a decade ago by former broadcast journalist Michael Carpenter. I got
Symbolic Statements
about 7 months ago - 3 comments
We live in an age where information is too available. We have more facts than we can assimilate or use, and very little context. One of the ways we manage to transmit all of this information comes from research done in “packing” of information. How much can we compress data, then “unpack” it later without
Failure by the Numbers
about 7 months ago - 7 comments
Sudoku. It’s a logic puzzle that involves placing numbers or letters in a grid such that you get no repeating characters within a given row, column, or highlighted grid. I got a book of puzzles for Christmas, and things finally slowed down enough I could check it out. You’d think a publication so prestigious to
The Big Empty
about 8 months ago - 6 comments
“Never underestimate the ability of shallow people to fill a void in their lives with something equally as vacuous.”
Stay Classy, Tuscaloosa
about 1 year ago - 14 comments
I saw the news early this morning that a University of Alabama starting defensive end, Brandon Deaderick was shot outside his apartment late last night during a robbery attempt. He’s in good condition with a wounded forearm, and there will be a statement from Coach Nick Saban sometime so0n. It would surprise me if Deaderick
Keen Observations
about 1 year ago - 1 comment
The following is cross-posted at the Social South website – please comment there. “One of these things is not like the other.” If you remember the song from Sesame Street, feel free to sing, sing along. Looking back on the lineup from the inaugural Social South, it was clear that one of the presentations was
Spell it out for me
about 1 year ago - 4 comments
From Twitter: As tempting as it might be to click on what I’m most certain is an “adult-dating” site, you have to wonder about how successful “Laci Casey” will be with a screen name that phoenetically reads “Do-w-your-herpes.” Not to be outdone, the irrepessible SkateHank followed up with this gem of marketing: Why thank you! When
For Want of a Dash
about 1 year ago - 1 comment
“The lowly hyphen is never more important than to the man who re-sent the terms for the position he wants to re-sign.”
about 3 years ago
Your – How DO *YOU* – works for me. Using bolds, underlines etc is certainly useful for creating emphasis particularly when we are writing online. However, the great writers of the past didn’t rely on these techniques. Context and good punctuation helped create the emphasis they wanted to achieve. Read any great novel to be reminded! I am not sure that instant messaging, SMS etc represent a set-back so much as a challenge. Writing briefly is almost always more difficult than writing at length. We need the mind of a haiku master combined with syntext creativity!