Freedom

Rules that apply to written language should be limited to what is strictly necessary for mutual understanding within a given language. Every rule that does not comply with this principle should disappear. Everyone would benefit from this.

The shape and structure of the text also play an important role. In academic writing, where ideas should be expressed concisely and adornments should be used sparingly, non-fiction writers whose only purpose is to pass on a message could do so without having to concentrate in complying with all the archaic and cumbersome limitations to writing that their language inherited from its history, focusing on what is really important: ideas. This might even curb other vices that are probably begotten by conventions, such as an exaggerated use of quotations, which may challenge the author’s originality. On the other side the lack of references, which is a consequence of people’s lack of scientific honesty, will probably never go away.

In literature, however, everything changes. In poetry and abstract literature, the great masters have been ignoring rules and conventions for a long time. This practice should be promulgated and taught in schools. Let us remember that writing is only a medium and that it should have no authority over what it carries. Fiction writers, particularly the great ones such as William Shakespeare, James Joyce, and Julio Cortázar ignore conventions and adapt things to their own needs. Others recur to archaisms like what Nicholson Baker calls the “comash” (,- ), the “semi-colash” (;-) and the “colash” (:-). In general, authors want to free themselves from the restrictions imposed by the strict rules that regulate written language and the strict definitions of words. Cortázar damns this system of rules by calling them perras negras.

A system for writing that suits both needs, conventions for written language that will allow precision to academics and full expression to poets must be devised. The way in which we write today works well, but not perfectly. It is still encumbered by rules. The main purpose of written texts is to convey information. However, having to concentrate in complying rules makes this task harder. In the absence of a speaker, an author must make use of all the elements of language to define the tone and mood with which the message is delivered. It is not so much what is said, as how it is said.