The new English orthography has raised much controversy. The solution, incidentally or not, has been cast as the ears of an audience accustomed to following orders has sounded like a bucket of cold water: the rule is optional. Each speaker will decide whether or not to follow.
This has left many in uncertainty: "How can a rule be optional? And now how are things? ". When appropriate reflection not accompany this type of statement, you run the risk of chaos. If no rule is "mandatory," Why study grammar? Why make the effort to implement a standard? Why do I need to know the difference between an adjective and a pronoun, if anyway not matter how you write? And if everything is OK now, why the editorial asks me to do things a certain way ...?
Spelling and grammatical rules are a necessary tool to ensure communication. Do not write to us write because we need to communicate something: we have something to say and not enough to shout to the wind and comply with its fading into the air. The words issued through orality are fleeting and beautiful in its tragic and inevitable demise and the limits of its scope. The voice reaches far as it will sound. The shockwave has an end. And even though communications technology has changed this status, as they disappear once the transmission. So write. So we feel the need to leave, literally, a brand in the world. Tangible and visible footprint whose stay extends beyond our life span. Writing is a means to maintain the physical illusion of eternity ...
A common, Again I say anything except bring attention to the indisputable fact that I write to be read by another, by someone other than myself. And what are the consequences of this fact from the editorial point of view? If anyone reading the text lacks the code to decipher, the very act of reading is impossible. And even the most beautiful words written in stone will fade and perish in the shadow of the times, if they become signs without code, forms without content.
The editorial policy is responsible for maintaining a stable code, common and widespread of all readers to ensure access to the contents of the text. Spelling, grammar and even orthotypography are tools to maintain the stability of the graphical symbols that allow textual communication. The grammar also exists in the oral tradition: the sentences are syntax, the position of words helps to unravel its meaning.
text written in the syntax and morphology alone are insufficient; need of graphic symbols to make them obvious and just play some of the significant variations of the voice. For example, how to write a tone, emphasis, a break? A typical example is the tilde in English: a graphic sign switch (not even reach the status of letter) to indicate a difference in intonation. Not to mention the gestures, completely absent from the written text, if not by the description.
An editorial, whatever their specialty, is a media company whose main purpose is to publish texts that will be disseminated to a wide audience. The minimum print run is 500 copies (though it runs are even smaller) and a best seller can sell millions of copies, not only at the pinnacle of their success but over time (long seller) . And each copy, as we know, pass through many hands in his long life, which can reach ages.
In consideration of those readers countless drafted, we and apply editorial standards. No interest motivates us to constantly issuing orders and creating rules. We are interested in maintaining a comprehensive code and widely disseminated to ensure the success of the act of reading. Our books are published to be read and that's reason enough to make every effort to publish texts readable and understandable by audiences. That is the function of the standard.
Thus, the new spelling of the English Royal Academy and the American Academy is optional, but publishers still need their standards of publication and such, for the employees of these publishers are not optional: is a gesture of love and an act of responsibility to their readers.
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