WRITING IS AN ART #18

THE COMMON COMMA

 

The comma is (to my mind at least) an under-used punctuation mark. To a certain extent, when and where you use one can be a bit subjective. As a very rough rule of thumb, if you read a sentence out loud, a comma should be inserted whenever there is a slight pause (denoting a slight change of direction).

 

One company I worked for insisted that commas should NEVER be used before ‘and’ or ‘but’. Rubbish! Lynne Truss’s book, ‘Eats, shoots & leaves’ shows the nonsense of that. Commas (and other punctuation marks) should be used whenever they help the reader to understand the sentence more easily.

 

Are you going in the right direction?

For instance, compare these three sets of directions:

 

1. Turn left and right across the street from the church is the entrance to the hotel
2. Turn left, and right across the street from the church is the entrance to the hotel
3. Turn left and right; across the street from the church is the entrance to the hotel

 

The first set, without any punctuation, is ambiguous. Sets B and C use punctuation to show two possible interpretations. So, to reiterate what I said in my previous blog, grammar is important!

 

Phil

 

Freelance copywriter

 

Web: http://www.phila

Email: info@phila.co.uk