Commas

[DarlingBri]

Someone has recently asked me if I have stock in comma production. This caused me to look at my use of the comma more analytically.

I have now discovered that I regularly insert a comma when I join two independent clauses with a coordinating conjunction such as "but."

For example:

Jane was extremely anxious to catch Spot, but she didn't want to run faster than Dick.

Can a serious grammar maven please advise if this is correct, incorrect, or dealer's choice?

Thank you

 

[KillerMuffin]

Comma right before that particular conjunction if it joins two clauses, but no comma otherwise.

He ate the apple, but didn't like it.
I enjoyed all the movies but one.

You can look at your "ands" as well, not all of them require a comma. Or perhaps your sentences aren't very clear to this person because they aren't very bright...?

*grumbles* of course, now WS is going to come correct me.

 

[Ulyssa]

Oh For God's Sake!

You are correct in what you've cited--but just go pick up a copy of Elements of Style by Strunk and White. There should be one in the public library and I can almost guarantee its presence in any University bookstore. The little book has been the writer's grammatical Bible for as long as there's been "qwertyuiop."

However, if people are commenting about your punctuation, then there's more wrong with your writing than just the number of commas--You're not doing your job!

Your Job: An unobtrusive read where your reader zips from word to word, phrase to phrase, and line to line without tripping over obvious mistakes or discomfortures in your text. Your reader wants to get to the end of your story in a delightfully happy--possibly horny mood. Beginning to end--smooth, exciting, and absolutely no distractions!

Got that?

[Edited by Ulyssa on 04-21-2001 at 07:11 AM]

 

[DarlingBri]

I'm sorry, I've been unclear

The person who asked that question was invited to proof read a document for me. Her brightness is not in question Nor is my writing ability in general.

I took the comment in the light hearted, humourous way it was intended. It also made me think, which was also what it was intended to do.

I used to have a copy of Strunk & White, but need to replace it. That's not easy here. I thought I could get a quicker answer to a simple useage question on the boards.

Thank you for your replies. I'm all clear now

[Edited by DarlingBri on 04-21-2001 at 07:26 AM]

 

[cymbidia]

Or perhaps your sentences aren't very clear to this person because they aren't very bright...?

It was me, babes, and i'm NOT a professional as you of all people ought to know! I was just trying to help that nice DB girl cuz i like her so much... honest honest... wasn't meaning to start no trouble with y'all... put down that skewering fork nice and easy now and i'll trade you a tylenol for it...

Maybe i was just having a blonde moment with the commas comment??????
(Don't yell at me. I *like* blonde people [although i don't like dumb people]. Heck, *i'm* blonde!)

 

[Ulyssa]

Wouldn't you just know it?

I go into my professorial heavyhanded approach on somebody and it all comes back to Cym!

Honey, we must have been Brutus and Antony in past lives, because everytime I wield my mighty two handed keyboard, there you are hiding in the boulders with your blue pencil, your ready quips, and your absolutely loveable bare ass.

We'll meet again, masked woman, and next time I'll be the one to strike first! Hahahaha!

 

[cymbidia]

Where's the love?

We'll meet again, masked woman, and next time I'll be the one to strike first! Hahahaha!

Ummm, Lyssa darlin'?

I believe it was you who struck first this time, was it not?
So you intend to strike first next time, too?
Don't i ever get to go first?

 

[Ulyssa]

I think that depends upon which one of us is holding the leather strap and which one of us is lying across the school bench!

Could it be we're both going first?

 

[cymbidia]

~laughing for real~
I, ummm, i'll lie across the bench, babes...
(You know too much about me!)

 

[Whispersecret]

I just today attended a lecture on grammar and learned some things I didn't know. I'll share some of this with you.

The speaker addressed the use of commas with coordinating conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) and said that, although the current trend is to use commas at your discretion, that you will never be wrong if you include them.

I found that to be sound advice.

 

[Whispersecret]

I wanted to clarify my statement above. If you use coordinating conjunctions to connect two independent sentences then, you will always be correct in using a comma.

For example, you don't just use a comma everytime you use the word "and."

I ate peanut butter, and jelly.

WRONG!

Just wanted to clear that up.

 

[Closet Desire]

Sometimes it's just academic...

Rules are handy, particularly for those who find it difficult to write in the first place, but many of the rules are arbitrary and optional. Certainly they are not universal. Comma usage here in the UK varies quite a bit from the US with a tendency to use commas far more often to show, for example, pauses in dialogue. It causes me no end of confusion as an American. In the final curtain the only thing that matters is that the text reads smoothly AND conveys what the writer wants it to. Literature doesn't always have to follow the rules. Writers should think of themselves as drivers on a road with nobody else to run into. Go ahead and floor it if you want. Just don't expect everyone to be impressed.

BTW, Strunk and White is one of the handiest bits of wisdom around, but the bible for English (in America) academics is the MLA manual.

 

[Ray Dario]

CD,

Count me as one who finds it difficult to write in the first place. Printing or typing I can do but that damned writing ...

Ray

PS.

KM Notice my correct usage of the elipses

Oh shit I'll be paying for this one won't I

 

[Closet Desire]

Their is hop...

...hee hee...just think...one day Bill Gates will release a product that will write everything for us. Just jot down the general ideas and--wham--bang--it's all done!

Camera bugs already know what it's like to take a photo, being very careful to balance the light and bracket exposures only to find that the automatic processing machine has produced the "perfect" print that's all wrong. Those who want to be creative have to control the process all the way through to achieve the preferred end result.

Notice my complete disregard for ellipses and M dashes! (and yes...my spell/grammar checker is always turned off...what nuisance).

Have a good one.

 

[Tawny T]

I'm afraid I am guilty of sometimes using too many comas. I had a reader chastise me not long ago. How dare he question ME!!!

I realized he might be correct. I do add a lot of comas! Some, I am sure that are superfluous. I'll try to cut down.

Sometimes it helps clear up a long sentence, to add a coma now and then. Now is that last coma correct or not? I think it adds carity to the sentence.

Grammarians????

The envelope plese! OR - The envelope, please!

Grin! Hey, I have lots of fun writing!

 

[KillerMuffin]

In my editings, when I have run across stories with too many commas, I think that it's because they are trying to, you know, make a couple of sentences into one sentence, which makes a runon sentence, and since the runon sentence makes no real sense, we know it has to breaks somewhere, we start tossing commas in willy-nilly, or on occasion, by design, until the sentence looks better, or feels better, but that doesn't change the fact that it's still an incorrect, way incorrect, runon sentence, so to conclude, if you think your commas are wrong, perhaps it may not necessarily be the commas, it may be that you're lacking in periods.

 

[Ulyssa]

Never lacking there

If you think your commas are wrong, perhaps it may not necessarily be the commas, it may be that you're lacking in periods.

Yes, but when we start lacking in periods, we'll have to exchange those days for hot flashes and even moodier depression based days. I like the urban term crib or the UK term flat for "apartment." I was never comfortable sleeping in a PAD.

 

[p_p_man]

Coming in at the end of this thread, as I've done, not because I thought I could add anything interesting, but because I was bored, and, notwithstanding the fact that, if I looked elsewhere there could be more intersting threads to post to, I have only one comment to make, which is, basically, if you're writing a story it should be as smoothly written as possible for the reader, so as not to disturb the flow, or readability, of what you've written, which could interfere with the reader's enjoyment, and, if you're writing something more professional, like a theseis, an essay, or, say a letter applying for a job vacancy, then you should get your commas right, if you see what I mean.
Fullstop, or as you would say in the States, so I've been told, by a friend of mine, who visited your country once and, according to him, had a great time, Period

 

[Dillinger]

You are correct in what you've cited--but just go pick up a copy of Elements of Style by Strunk and White.

You, don't, even, need, to, go, buy, it, -, its, online,:

http://www.bartleby.com/141/index.html

[Edited by Dillinger on 04-28-2001 at 02:36 PM]

 

[thunderflash]

commas

Quite correct, DarlingBri, but unnecessary. It is equally correct without the comma. Semi-colons now....!