Shashwat Sarawagi

Words matter.

Language ain’t isn’t just a dictum: it’s the medium through which thought happens. We don’t merely report ideas with sentences; we shape ideas by choosing them.

So why should the Books section sound the same as the News?

News is clean. It’s Its sentences should be glass: transparent, frictionless, impossible to misunderstand. Truth has enough enemies: it doesn’t need an unpunctuated, run-on sentence with meaningless metaphors. In News, simplicity is your friend.

But Books? Arts? Culture? Those breathe differently.

Sometimes a sentence wants to wander. Sometimes it b r e a k s, on purpose, (bec)a(u)s(e) the thought broke first. An Arts writer bends syntax the way a painter bends perspective… not carelessly, but carefully. To add texture. For rhYThM. For the already INEFFABLE that grammar further kills.

And that’s why copyediting is judgement, not rule-keeping. Rules matter. And so does breaking them. The difference is intention. Sometimes, the writer intends A, writes B, yet the reader understands C. What should a copyeditor do? They must realise this gap and make sure these ideas agree.

That’s the style I stand for: precision that knows when to soften, restraint that knows when to let go, and language that never forgets what it’s here to do.

Not just to be correct. But to keep the cat free.