海角大神

Last week in this space we considered the disappearance of periods from the end of text messages, and as a corollary, the tendency of periods, when they do appear, to be seen as expressing some level of aggression, as if to say, 鈥淚 meant what I said, period.鈥�

This week, as the astute decoder of headlines will have already inferred, we鈥檒l consider an opposite phenomenon: periods after every single word of a line, for effect. Maybe with so many people failing to punctuate their texts, the market price of periods has tanked, so that these punctuators-for-effect have been able to scoop up periods in bulk at deep discounts.

Exhibit A: Daniel Pink鈥檚 bestselling 2012 book, 鈥淭o Sell Is Human,鈥� all about how just about everyone in the workforce is 鈥渋n sales鈥� because we鈥檙e all trying to influence or 鈥渕ove鈥� others, whatever our job title.聽

Mr. Pink opens his book with what journalism students will recognize as an 鈥渁necdotal lead鈥�: He recounts a salesman鈥檚 visit to a San Francisco law office where he wants to talk a couple of otherwise preoccupied immigration lawyers into buying a fancy feather duster.

鈥淲ith a magician鈥檚 flourish, Hall begins by removing from his bag what looks like a black wand. He snaps his wrist and 鈥� voil脿! 鈥� out bursts a plume of dark feathers. And not just any feathers, he reveals.

鈥� 鈥楾hese are ... Male. Ostrich. Feathers.鈥� 鈥�

The periods and the capitalization convey on the page what the utterance would have sounded like to you, had you been there 鈥� the emphases and the pauses after each word.

And a few pages later, Pink does it again. Like a filmmaker pulling the camera back from a close-up to show the larger scene, the author reveals the significance of this particular salesman:聽

鈥淸He] is a Fuller Brush salesman. And not just any Fuller Brush salesman.聽

鈥淗e is ... The. Last. One.鈥�

This use of periods after every word is an example of punctuation as stage direction, or guidance for reading aloud, as distinct from 鈥済rammatical punctuation,鈥� which helps convey sentence structure.

Pink鈥檚 is a serious, substantive book. But it鈥檚 written in a lively, conversational style. As you read, you hear the author鈥檚 voice in your head. These periods help convey that.

Here are a couple of other examples from my recent reading: On a copy-editing e-mail list, someone erupted over some awkward prose: 鈥淸A]ny reader will be left scratching their head as to just.what.this.means.鈥�

And here鈥檚 an online cri de coeur lamenting the collapse of customer service at a (formerly) favorite company: 鈥淲hen I needed help, I could call the line and get a pleasant, helpful person who genuinely wanted to assist me.

鈥淣ot. Any. More.鈥�

As a device, this can be annoying. But it can be effective, too, if used sparingly.

And I鈥檓 so glad to have an idea of where all those unused periods from people鈥檚 text messages are ending up.