The comma is a dragon that must be slayed. There are many rules involving their use and at times it does come down to the quality of the writer and not the mastery of the comma itself that will make the difference. For example:
Then the great master, for that is what he was, in all greatness, which radiated from him, saw what was presented as an offering.
In this case the comma is presenting information that is wholly unneeded for the sentence and can actually be seen as confusing because of the three pieces of unnecessary information presented next to each other through the comma. The reason why this is included is because one might at times be tempted to place exposition inside of commas. This is a terrible idea and will end up as redundant as the sample sentence just above.
Now of course the more common and proper use of a comma is to connect two sentences together. This is usually done when they are separated by the seven coordinating conjunctions which are and, but, for, or, nor, so. An example of proper usage would read like:
The King looked upon the hills, but he saw nothing except despair. In this case the two sentences are "The King looked upon the hills. He saw nothing except despair." The comma in the sentence, in my opinion, creates for a smoother read. The comma is acting as a modifier to the main idea of the sentence which doesn't have the reader pausing for breath every several seconds. A major goal of a writer is to make their works readable and commas should only be used to help in this but not hinder it.
Another way to accomplish this goal is by using commas in lists. If all lists read The cow Cloverleaf and Milk we would have for a confusing sentence. Is the cow's name cloverleaf or is it a cow made of cloverleaf? If it is a cow made out of cloverleaf then why is milk involved? So to ease this problem we can list things as The cow, Cloverleaf, and Milk with the comma separating individual items on the list and make it easier on the eyes of both the reader and the writer.
For today the hour is getting late but commas are not. As such I will end this here and have a new post to finish commas tomorrow.
A good start. Now, since I assigned this to you, allow me the first comments.
ReplyDelete1) get to the goddamn point faster;
2) check your use of 's, especially when it concerns the difference between it's and it's - you're using these wrong in the post;
3) you're mixing up to and too as well. Figure this out;
4) this is a blog on grammar. Explain the rules and give an example. All the other stuff you're writing is the style that's getting in the way of the content.
There's more but we'll work it all out together. Keep this blog secret for now. Write however you wish on your other blog, but on this I'm going to be all over you like no english teacher ever has, evidently.