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Rank: Purveyor of Poetry & Porn
Joined: 10/19/2009
Posts: 5,358
Location: Right here on Lush Stories...
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Somebody just posted this in a FB writing group...
The Most Comma Mistakes...
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/21/the-most-comma-mistakes/
 You know you want it, you know you need it bad...get it now on Amazon.com...Lush Erotica, an Anthology of Award Winning Sex Stories
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Rank: Purveyor of Poetry & Porn
Joined: 10/19/2009
Posts: 5,358
Location: Right here on Lush Stories...
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Yeah, commas can be important...
You know you want it, you know you need it bad...get it now on Amazon.com...Lush Erotica, an Anthology of Award Winning Sex Stories
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Rank: Senior Story Moderator
Joined: 8/23/2011
Posts: 1,924
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Hey Clum - Something to add to the list when you get back to your punctuation/grammar lessons: the gerund. I have noticed a spate of that verb form used alone in sentences, which makes them sentence fragments, as there is no active verb anywhere further along in the sentence. I am looking forward to the primer beginning again.
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Rank: Clumeleon
Joined: 5/13/2011
Posts: 3,003
Location: Dundee, United Kingdom
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principessa wrote:Hey Clum -
Something to add to the list when you get back to your punctuation/grammar lessons: the gerund.
I have noticed a spate of that verb form used alone in sentences, which makes them sentence fragments, as there is no active verb anywhere further along in the sentence.
I am looking forward to the primer beginning again. Will need to do some research on that but should be doable. Need to get into some sort of routine and then I'll get back to doing these thread. This whole working nine 'til five thing is really throwing me off.
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Rank: Senior Story Moderator
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Thank you, C.
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Rank: Forum Guru
Joined: 9/13/2011
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Location: United States
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clum wrote:Before Conjunctions
Commas should not, in general, be used before a conjunction (I'm thinking of 'and' and 'but' in particular). There are certainly exceptions to this rule but they are few and far between. If in doubt, don't use a comma.
Example
She came over to the house and watched the film with me but it took me a full hour to build up the courage to jump her bones.
Notice how I didn't use any commas, even though it is tempting to place one before 'but' (and sometimes I swither myself). It's just something to be wary of. I've got to disagree with this one. Rule #2 from http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/commas.htmUse a comma + a little conjunction (and, but, for, nor, yet, or, so) to connect two independent clauses, as in "He hit the ball well, but he ran toward third base."I sometimes fail to put them in, especially before 'and', and I notice, after I submit the story, that it needed one. As we are from countries that sometimes seem to be separated by a common language, this might be a national preference, but it doesn't seem so.
Sensei's altimeter is reading 9000'. Suddenly the engine noise level drops a lot. The engine on the door side of the plane is quiet. We hear, "Shit! Fuck me!" from the cockpit, then the pilot yells, "Everybody out! Now!" Airgasms Induce Orgasms
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Rank: Clumeleon
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1ball wrote:I've got to disagree with this one. Rule #2 from http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/commas.htmUse a comma + a little conjunction (and, but, for, nor, yet, or, so) to connect two independent clauses, as in "He hit the ball well, but he ran toward third base."I sometimes fail to put them in, especially before 'and', and I notice, after I submit the story, that it needed one. As we are from countries that sometimes seem to be separated by a common language, this might be a national preference, but it doesn't seem so. Fair enough; I'm not the grammar police and I'm not going to go through all your stories removing what I believe are misplaced commas. This is what I believe works best, particularly for novice writers and especially for the words 'and' and 'but'. Of course, sometimes a comma would be appropriate before the conjunction but that's really up to the writer. The ultimate goal is to have a piece of writing read as fluidly as possible (in most cases) and sometimes a comma helps with that, sometimes it doesn't. To quote the paragraph immediately following the one you did, Quote:Contending that the coordinating conjunction is adequate separation, some writers will leave out the comma in a sentence with short, balanced independent clauses (such as we see in the example just given). If there is ever any doubt, however, use the comma, as it is always correct in this situation. and so I would only use the comma if not doing so left room for ambiguity. The complexity of the writing of novice authors is usually not such that this is ever a problem.
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Rank: Forum Guru
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clum wrote:
Fair enough; I'm not the grammar police and I'm not going to go through all your stories removing what I believe are misplaced commas. This is what I believe works best, particularly for novice writers and especially for the words 'and' and 'but'.
I can easily agree that it can work best for 'and'. I'm way less likely to stumble while reading if the comma before an 'and' is missing (in the case of independent clauses). We went to the store and I saw a pretty girl working there.I do stumble while reading if the comma before a 'but' is missing, especially if the sentence is longer. I think of it as the "verb, but verb" rule. I went to the store to see the pretty girl who works there, but she wasn't working that day.Maybe it's just me, but it's like hitting a bump in the road when it's missing.
Sensei's altimeter is reading 9000'. Suddenly the engine noise level drops a lot. The engine on the door side of the plane is quiet. We hear, "Shit! Fuck me!" from the cockpit, then the pilot yells, "Everybody out! Now!" Airgasms Induce Orgasms
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Rank: Clumeleon
Joined: 5/13/2011
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1ball wrote:Maybe it's just me, but it's like hitting a bump in the road when it's missing. I agree with that comma.
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Rank: Rookie Scribe
Joined: 6/17/2012
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I never use commas because they slow down the reader. You don't need anything but periods if you are writing well and you don't even need those if you don't want to use them. A friend read one of my stories. Why don't you use any punctuation? she asked me. I told her I was trying to create a sense of immediacy. Starkness. No longer any boundaries between reader and narrator.
Or maybe I'd just been reading too much Cormack McCarthy.
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BUMP Please use commas, but please use them appropriately.
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