The challenge of the comma

Oh no, you're thinking, not the damn comma. This is perhaps the most plaguing piece of punctuation in American English, for the both native and non-native speakers alike. The reasons for so much confusion are multiple.

First, there is the connection, often made to children, that a comma is associated with taking a breath and pausing slightly. This is true, when we are reading aloud. We pause very briefly at a comma (and inhale if needed), a little longer at a semi-colon or a colon, and longest at a period (aka the full stop). But the converse is not true: that we put in a comma anytime we want the reader to pause and ponder. When somebody tells me he put in a comma because "it sounded right," I know he is reading his work aloud and not considering the conventions of standard English.

The comma, like other pieces of punctuation, is a signal, and it is a signal to pause, but it also signals a syntactical break. Here, with examples, are the most common syntactic uses of the comma.

1. Separates introductory material from the main part of the sentence, whether phrase or clause. (After he left, we finished dinner.)
2. Separates two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction: and, or, for, so, yet, but. (Jack brought along his harmonica, but no one wanted to hear him play.)
3. Separates items in a series of three or more. (We're writing poems, essays, and short stories in the class.)**
4. Separates non-restrictive clauses or phrases from the body of the text. (Marilyn, an alto, sang with the choruse for years. OR Marilyn, who was an alto, sang with the chorus for years.)
· Two commas are needed when non-restrictive material occurs in the interior of the sentence.
· One comma is needed when the material occurs at the beginning or end of the sentence.
5. Designates writer’s commentary (e.g., therefore, thus, however, moreover, for example, etc.). (We went early; thus, we were able to get great seats.)
6. Separates items in common phrases (e.g., dates, addresses, geographic locations).

**See tomorrow night's post for more on this.

The least you should know about English

It used to be that English majors and English professors wrote most of the books that were published in the United States, with the exception of textbooks in specific disciplines. They had not only the love of literature to spur them on but they had also the most solid grounding in grammar, mechanics (including punctuation), and style. They'd had serious training in writing and reading. Editing, done by one's publisher, was primarily developmental; that is, it looked at the structure of the book, its plot and characters if fiction/its organization and accuracy if nonfiction. The manuscript then went through a final proofreading stage for errors in typesetting and an occasional inconsistency by an author.

Today huge numbers of books are being written and published by people who don't come from this specialized language background. They may or may not be well read; they may or may not be well-schooled in the language and the conventions of writing. While many will pay a text editor to polish their text, others may wish to improve their own skills as part of their writing life.

An excellent series of books is called The Least You Should Know about English (Paige Wilson and Teresa Ferster Glazier), now in its 10th edition. I've used these books for years with adult writing students who are getting MBAs or other higher education degrees in the social sciences. Those students often haven't had a writing class since Freshman English decades before and need a way to review such things as parts of speech, standard punctuation conventions, commonly misspelled words, and other writing issues.

The series (forms A, B, and C) are the same book with different exercises (answers in the book) so they are perfect for self-review by the interested writer. Clients of mine who have gone through one of the books are often able to self-edit with much more accuracy and skill, thus saving editing fees and, more importantly, feeling much stronger as writers. An added bonus: If you have kids or grandkids around, the book is perfect for them too.