COMMA - Where art thou?

The simple answer? Here, there and everywhere. And often where it shouldn’t be.

Such fun going over your manuscript looking for those sneaky ones … NOT! At least our full stop (US ‘period’) does exactly what it says it does.

Examples with no stops or commas: 'Time flies you can't they fly too fast'  and
‘Let's eat Daddy.'  Oh dear....

Despite  the ‘comma’ being a tricky piece of punctuation, I have to admit it is a very useful little mark. Especially in wills, so I’m told. It’s funny how older books sprinkled them like a sower sows seed. Nowadays they’re not quite as popular, but still necessary to help a reader make sense of what the author wants to convey.

Maybe the difficulty lies in Australian authors swinging between the US and the UK market. A pity we can’t just make up our own rules & use both. Ah well, maybe the dear editors among us would have a fit.  I am quoting the University of Bristol as sometimes Grammarly confuses me as to whether they’re using US or UK grammar. Without appearing to be a crashing bore, I’ll list a few instances just to jog our memories.

1.      To separate a list of three or more items. And wait for it, the Oxford comma.

There is some debate about whether or not to include a comma to separate the last two items.

eg: His favourite desserts were apple pie, rhubarb crumble, and jelly and ice cream. 

The comma after ‘crumble’ indicates that jelly and ice cream is considered a single item in the series. Phew! 

On some occasions using the Oxford comma definitely avoids confusion.                                                             eg: I dedicate this work to my parents, Marie Smith, and God. Without using that Oxford comma, it would mean her parents were Marie and God. Hmm.

2.      Before certain conjunctions: and, but, for, nor, yet, or. These are separate independent clauses. So they are called coordinating conjunctions.

               eg: She was a great cook, but she would never be as good as her mother-in-law.

3.      Separating introductory elements in a sentence. (Except when the introductory element is very short.) Ex: After his nap Sam felt a lot better. But: After a deliciously long nap, Sam felt a lot better.

4.      Separating elements in a sentence expressing contrast.                                            

        eg: He was first attracted by her money, not her stunning looks.

There are many other obvious uses, but these are probably ones we may forget. And I have. I suppose if I sometimes puzzle over where to place that punctuation mark, maybe others might also.

So we may as well keep calm & not panic. (Still it's nice to have some control over the little blighters, isn't it?)

Author Rita Stella Galieh is an indie publisher of her Victorian trilogy;

Signed Sealed delivered, The Tie That Binds & A Parcel of Promises.

At present she is excited about preparing to publish Miss Kate's Great Expectations. Her heroine has some issues, especially as Kate can handle a pistol, but can she hit her target in matters of the heart?

She teams up with her friend, Margaret Lepke, who has all the technical expertise needed in publishing. And our fellow member, Iola Goulton, has both edited and assessed the original manuscript.

www.ritastellapress.com
And a Happy & Blessed New Year to you dear ACWs!