Tolerance

I was thinking about tolerance today...

Actually, I got to thinking about tolerance by way of thinking about punctuation. As a respected writer, I consider myself somewhat of an expert on proper style and form. In training for my craft, I dutifully studied the rules of grammar and punctuation and I learned them well. Haughty perhaps, but I admit it annoys me when I see that other writers have not taken such care.

When confronted with sloppy copy, I usually cringe, mutter, and move on. Occasionally, however, the errors agitate me so that I feel compelled to attempt a remedy. That is precisely what happened this week. While searching the Web for information on effective copywriting techniques, I found an exceptionally informative Website. I was dazzled by the brilliant content, I was charmed by the unpretentious style, but I was irritated by the punctuation errors. And so, I typed a polite but pointed note to the Website's author.

A few days later, I was alerted to an interesting exchange at a different Website. A reader had complained that the writer consistently fails to follow proper punctuation guidelines by placing the comma outside the closing quotation mark (a serious offense in some circles). To which the author replied that the exiled comma did comply with several established style standards ­— but apparently not the reader's standards. Hmmmm...

And so I had to consider for a moment whether I was justified in my earlier rebuke of the errors I'd found — or in any of the other instances where I've set out to correct a perceived blunder. Further, if I unwittingly held this punctuation prejudice, what other biases might I be guilty of blindly upholding? I quickly recognized an underlying want of tolerance ­— realizing that in writing and all other matters, what is true for me isn't necessarily true for anybody else. Other people follow other rules. Some actions are clearly wrong, but some are simply different.

As I pondered this idea, another occurred to me... Since the comma signals a moment to pause, and tolerance is defined as the capacity for respecting the beliefs or practices of others, how appropriate it is that one should lead to the other!

I probably won't quit my attempts to improve errant grammar, but the next time I'm tempted to pass judgment on somebody else's words, I'll take my cue from the comma — pausing a moment to consider whether I need to be tolerant, or whether I need to type another note.

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