A Modest Proposal

words removed
3,423
marks left
500
words a sentence
49.6
most used mark
,

Its punctuation fingerprint: each mark's share, on the same scale as every book on the shelf.

Its punctuation twin, the closest fingerprint on the shelf: Second Treatise of Government, John Locke. More twins

Jonathan Swift on the shelf

3 books by Jonathan Swift are on the shelf. Its fingerprint is the 3rd closest of the 3 to their average. Held out and guessed from its marks alone, the shelf takes it for David Hume. Of the 623 other authors on the shelf, Jonathan Swift's punctuation is closest to Flavius Josephus's.

Jonathan Swift's average fingerprint

Jonathan Swift on the numbers page

Marks per 1,000 words, except words per sentence and dialogue (the share of words inside quotation marks).
This bookJonathan Swift's averageEvery book's median
Semicolons7.611.27.2
Commas106.696.876.6
Colons4.43.51.6
Exclamation marks0.30.22.8
Question marks0.30.53.7
Words per sentence49.638.417.0
Dialogue0%8%22%

Every mark in reading order, left to right, top to bottom. Sentence endings are pink.

Read your own or go back to the shelf

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