Good spot, Mark B (and Woody). I’m pleased some people were paying attention at the back.
SFB seems to have retreated into semi- ee cummings territory, seeking to eschew certain rules of punctuation, while maintaining others (“…beat the less well versed. To concentrate on…”) to illustrate the point that, in spite of the nose on his face, he too must conform to certain rules for communication.
On an everyday basis, of course one can be lax with the “rules”, but when seeking to ensure a level of precision in language beyond the mundane, then it does become necessary to have sufficient common understanding of exactly what someone means. Take what I do: if I draft something which, as a result of my use or misuse of certain prevailing rules or accepted norms of written language, remains subsequently open to interpretation, then what I wrote was not sufficiently clear for all concerned to rely on it wholeheartedly. This is one of the prime reasons that the courts are full of arguments over the precise meaning of drafting and, ultimately, its commercial effect. Given how costly going to court is (not least because you need two types of lawyer on each side), it pays to get it right in the first instance.
