The Misunderstood Comma

The Misunderstood Comma

It may seem odd to some that I have this obsession with the comma—a quiet, seemingly insignificant part of literary masterpieces. After all, in the vast scope of writing, the little guy doesn’t seem very important. What reader notices—or even cares—if proper comma-placement was used by E. L. James as they drool through Fifty Shades of Grey?

Well, this curly splash on the page is the hardest working of all the punctuation marks. Though we flash over the commas as we speed through a sentence without consciously realizing their presence, our minds automatically sense the comma's power to interpret the author’s conveyance of emphasis, contrast, essentiality, and relevance. That’s a lot of power given to one invisible punctuation mark.

Proper comma placement is like a roadmap for your readers, guiding them through sentences on a clear path of understanding your intended meaning. Throwing commas around when the moods strikes you or omitting necessary commas derails the reader and reveals carelessness and ignorance on the part of the writer. If your audience is lost, they will abandon the journey.

"I have spent most of the day putting in a comma and the rest of the day taking it out."
~~Oscar Wilde~~

Are you one of those writers afraid to insert a comma where you think it might be needed, but aren’t quite sure, so you leave it out, then decide to put the comma in, but go back later and take it out? You’re not alone. There are many talented, imaginative, even famous writers who suffer from commaphobia or commaphilia.

The commaphiliacs blatantly and irresistibly pepper their literary works with an over-abundance of the curly punctuation mark, as if a shotgun blast blew commas throughout each sentence. The commaphobics, on the other hand, tremble in fear as indecision prevents them from making any attempt to add a comma in even the most obvious areas of a sentence.

Don’t despair. There is hope for the confused and the commatose. Using commas correctly may seem like an impossible task, but it can be mastered by dispelling the three common comma myths.

MYTH: Long sentences need a comma.
This statement is not only false but also sheer nonsense as you take notice of the fact that this sentence you are presently reading has no need of any commas due to the fact that there are not two or more independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction that would warrant a comma nor any elements in a series or coordinate adjectives which would require separation by the use of a comma. Whew! Okay, that’s enough of that, but do you see my point?

MYTH: You should add a comma wherever you pause or take a breath.
So does this mean an asthmatic or someone with lung disease, [gasp] needs to, [gasp] insert a, [gasp] comma every time, [gasp] air needs to enter, [gasp] their lungs? No. Everyone pauses and breathes differently. How could concrete comma-placement rules be established based on an individual's rate of respiration?

MYTH: Commas are so mysterious that it's impossible to figure out where they belong!
Actually, there is no mystery to where commas belong. There are specific, predictable, unbending rules which follow a logical pattern governing even the most complex sentence structures.

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Some Comma Rules

The following are two basic rules for proper comma usage. As you can see, there is no mystery about them.

Independent Clauses & Coordinating Conjunctions

Use commas to separate independent clauses when they are joined by Coordinating Conjunctions. Independent Clauses can stand alone as a separate and complete sentence. When a Coordinating Conjunction joins these independent clauses, a comma is used. It may help you remember the seven Coordinating Conjunctions by recalling that they all have fewer than four letters and that the first letter of each spells out the acronym FANBOYS: For-And-Nor-But-Or-Yet-So. The comma should always be placed before the coordinating conjunction.

Example:
Writing.Com offers aspiring authors and poets a variety of activities, and it provides credible writing classes three times a year.
In this sentence, we have two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction. Writing.Com offers aspiring authors and poets a variety of activities can stand alone as a separate sentence, so it is an independent clause. It provides credible writing classes three times a year is also an independent clause since it too can stand alone as a separate sentence. These clauses are joined by the coordinating conjunction and, so a comma is needed before and.

Clauses and Phrases & Coordinating Conjunctions

If an independent clause and a non-independent clause (a phrase) are joined by a coordinating conjunction, no comma is needed before the conjunction. A phrase cannot stand alone as a separate sentence.

Example:
Writing.Com offers aspiring authors and poets a variety of activities and provides credible writing classes three times a year.
Provides credible writing classes three times a year is a phrase. It cannot stand alone as a separate sentence, so no comma is used before the coordinating conjunction and.

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A few comma-placement rules are flexible and subject to conveying to the reader the writer’s presentation of a particular action or description of a setting or the emphasis of a character’s expression. In these instances, the author has the ability to control and expose specific interpretation by utilizing the power of the comma.

The following are examples of comma placement where the presence or absence of the comma is based upon the author’s perception of the meaning of the sentence.

Ending Participial Phrases

Do not use a comma before an Ending Participial Phrase that modifies the word it immediately follows. It is always better for clarity to put the Ending Participial Phrase right next to the word it modifies. This eliminates the possibility of creating the dreaded Dangling Participial Phrase. But it is sometimes awkward to construct such a sentence. So if the Ending Participial Phrase modifies an word positioned earlier in the sentence and not immediately next to it, a comma must be used.

Examples:
Ms. Winnie curiously watched Web Witch flying over the computer.
In this sentence, there is no comma before the ending participial phrase flying over the computer. So this tells us that it is Web Witch doing the flying since she is immediately next to that phrase.

Ms. Winnie curiously watched Web Witch, flying over the computer.
Here, we have a comma before the ending participial phrase, so the author has decided that Ms. Winnie is doing the flying.

Essential and Non-Essential Elements

Use commas before and after Non-Essential (unnecessary) words, phrases, and clauses that are elements embedded in the sentence which interrupt the flow of the sentence but are not needed to clarify the meaning of the sentence. However, do not use commas to set off Essential Elements that are vital to the meaning of the sentence.

Examples:
My favorite web site, Writing.Com, has made me a better author, poet, and reviewer.
Since I only have one favorite web site, it is not essential to know its name, so commas need to surround the non-essential appositive Writing.Com. Without the non-essential element, the rest of the sentence is understandable to the reader.
My favorite web site has made me a better author, poet, and reviewer.

The web site Writing.Com has made me a better author, poet, and reviewer.
Why aren’t there any commas around Writing.Com in this sentence? Well, there are many web sites out there. Therefore, it is essential to know which web site is being referenced, so no commas should surround the name of the web site. Without the essential appositive, the reader would not know what you were talking about.
The web site has made me a better author, poet, and reviewer. [What web site?]

Can you see how a comma misplaced in these sentences will completely alter the meaning for the reader? This is where the power of the comma is displayed through the discretion of the author.

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A New World without Commas?

So we’ve seen how commas clarify, define, and interpret a writer’s words. But...would we survive without them? John McWhorter—author, linguist, and Columbia University professor of English—asserts that we “could take [the commas out of] a great deal of modern American texts, and you would probably suffer so little loss of clarity that there could even be a case made for not using commas at all.”

Whoa! Wait a minute... What did he just say? If you read further regarding this quote, you will discover that McWhorter is referring to the fairly new means of communicating through text-messaging rather than formal literary works. Whew! Okay, I can live with that... sort of... Everyone these days seems to be walking around, holding up smart phones as they hastily punch the tiny keys in an effort to convey dinner plans to the kids—who, by the way, are reciprocating with likewise poised finger-tips hovering over their own communication devices. With limited-character tweets and IM discussions flying back and forth like ping-pong balls, there is no place for the comma to survive, much less the properly-placed comma.

University of Michigan English professor and language historian Anne Curzan says that the decreasing use of commas in texts and tweets may be tied to efforts at making communications more stylistically fun and more similar to spoken conversation. When she asked her students about the use of punctuation in text-messaging, they replied by saying that the comma doesn’t seem to be getting repurposed in texts. It’s being purged.

In Conclusion

Concentrating on the proper use of commas causes writers to review their understanding of structure and to consider carefully how their sentences are crafted. Commas in the wrong places can break a sentence into illogical segments or confuse readers with unnecessary and unexpected pauses.

As serious writers and poets, we all desire to learn and grow, constantly perfecting our skills and talents. Though the comma seems to be a small, insignificant key-stroke imbedded—with little confidence—throughout that epic novel or that perfectly metered poem shinning with awardicons in our portfolio, it is indeed a powerful punctuation mark guiding our readers through a journey of our own design. Learn how to use the little fellow wisely and without fear, and your audience will enjoy their travels.



References:

Comma Placement Rules and Examples

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So,,,Put A Comma Here,,,Or Not???  (13+) Learn proper comma placement. #1624130 by Winnie Kay

Input from John McWhorter and Anne Curzan
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_good_word/2014/01/comma_usage_rules_are_u...

Popular Myths of Comma Usage:
http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/commas/