The first time I saw Hamilton, I was blown away by the sweeping story, the diverse casting, the brilliant lyrics, the incredible music, the knockout choreography, my leaping emotions in response—how much it inspires. I had all the big feels. If that weren’t enough, a small detail regarding punctuation captured my editor’s attention. Perhaps you noticed it too. The brilliant Angelica sings:
In a letter I received from you two weeks ago
I noticed a comma in the middle of a phrase
It changed the meaning. Did you intend this?
One stroke and you’ve consumed my waking days
It says:
“My dearest, Angelica”
With a comma after “dearest.”
You’ve written
“My dearest, Angelica”
Ooh, things just got interesting. What’s going to happen here? After all, Hamilton’s married to Angelica’s s-i-s-t-e-r, Eliza! When Angelica first meets Hamilton, she feels an electric current. But her sister also loves Hamilton, and as the oldest, Angelica knows she would be expected to marry rich. This combination leads her to put her own feelings aside and yield to her sister’s desires. But did she really put those feelings aside? She’s thinking about that comma a lot.
You see it, right?
Perhaps you don’t, and if so, you’re not the only one.Most people don’t think too much about commas.
How could a little comma stir the blood so?
If Hamilton had simply written “My dearest Angelica” (without the comma), it would have been a warm, though ordinary, form of address. He might have addressed anyone this way to be polite and congenial.
Dearest is a superlative word, like the word “favorite.” It is the highest in its category. To use a comma before a particular name in conjunction with a superlative is to set that person apart and assign the category to them alone. To say “My dearest, Angelica” (with a comma after dearest) is to say that out of all the beating hearts in this world, Angelica is the dearest to him of all.
Mercy! It does make you wonder what was going on there.
How good is Lin Manuel Miranda, who quickens our hearts with the stroke of a comma?
I’ve been very quiet on my editing blog lately. That’s because I have, in the last six months, moved with my family of five from Australia to… Japan!
It’s a move we made with mixed emotions, as we loved Australia and were fortunate to live in the most wonderful community there. A bit of my heart will always be a little Australian as a result of the time we spent there. But, as a friend so aptly said before we left, the only constant in life is change. Too true. The change involved in moving from Australia to Japan has been whopping! But I’m grateful for the life experience and the learning involved.
We’re part of an American community in Japan, and after being out of the country for 3.5 years, I sometimes feel as though I’m visiting two foreign countries at once. I’m seeing my country of origin with fresh eyes, and obviously much about life in Japan is different for me. I love to learn, so I’m very much in my element.
All in all, we’re adjusting quite well. Seeing more of this amazing world is a privilege I don’t take lightly. Since December, we’ve been more than a little busy getting the basic building blocks of our lives in place: housing, schools for the kids, household goods, work. The food is delicious, the people are unfailingly kind and helpful, the geography is beautiful, and we’re slowly getting involved in our community. We’re all learning a bit of Japanese (though we’d be in serious trouble without the Google Translate app.)
For work, I’ve been teaching English to a wonderful group of adult Japanese students. I’ll also soon begin teaching university writing at a local American university, and I am still editing! I joined the editing team at Proofed, Inc., which has been valuable experience. I’m part of a team that edits career-related articles received from CopyPress for publication on indeed.com.We edit work for a number of markets and dialects, including the UK, Australia, Canada, India, and Singapore. Here’s one example:
That’s my big update! I don’t plan to move continents (anytime soon), so I hope not to ignore my editing blog for such a long stretch again. If you have editing-related topics you’d like to see me address in this space, please drop me a message to let me know. I’d love to provide some useful content to you.
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