Pilcrow

As a writer, I pay close attention to the formatting of a piece of writing.  Spacing, kerning, font choices, and more all jump out to me when I look at the page.  Engineers, however, don't pay the same attention that I do.  That's fine since if they did, I wouldn't have a job.  But, when I'm editing something (heck, even when I drafting a something for the first time), I like a little extra help.  For that, I turn to my friend the pilcrow or paragraph mark (¶).

Pilcrows are useful since I don't have to guess at how many times the author hit "Enter," I can see it.  What's frustrating is that apparently I am the only person in my entire office that uses them.  Every time I've asked for a hand with something I'm writing, I have to turn off the pilcrows (or at least, make them invisible) or my coworker will be confused about what's wrong with my screen.  I've just gotten in the habit of hitting Ctrl+* (the shortcut in MS Word) before calling anyone over to my computer.

If you're like, though, you may wonder why we use a stylized, backwards P to represent paragraphs.  It's not a stylized P, but rather a C.  Originally, when punctuation was first being experimented with in English, a lot of Latin was still in use.  The C was short for capitulum, Latin for "chapter."  (Incidentally, the word paragraph comes from the Greek word paragraphos, which means anything other than the main text.  Think marginal notes or asides to the audience.)  As time went on, vertical lines were added to the C and the void space of the C was filled in.  Eventually, the ¶ or pilcrow was born.  The name may be from the symbol looking like a "plucked crow" or a corrupted form of the French pelagraphe which means "paragraph."

Whatever you call it, I encourage you to make pilcrows your friend.  Think of it this way: even if you don't see them, you still use them.  Wouldn't you rather see what's already there anyway?