By Thoreau
I vaguely remember that teachers used to consider over-use of commas a serious problem. I have fuzzy recollections of being harangued by teachers who wanted to stamp out that practice. I think they succeeded, and they probably succeeded a little too well. Nowadays kids seem to under-use commas.
For once, I’m not pissed at anyone. Teachers responded with remarkable effectiveness to a real problem, and now we just need to re-calibrate. Whenever I hand back critiques of writing I put the title of this post on the chalkboard and ask if commas might save some lives.
LOL! There is a grammar book called “Eats, shoots and leaves,” (http://www.amazon.com/Eats-Shoots-Leaves-Tolerance-Punctuation/dp/1592402038; sorry, for some reason could not create a proper link); the title is based on a joke where a misplaced comma is the difference between something like “A panda bear eats shoots and leaves” and “A panda bear eats, shoots and leaves.”
>ask if commas might save some lives.
>>I, like, cooking my family and my pets.
Nope, didn’t help.
Reminds me of the news announcers saying “President Obama will travel to South Africa with his wife Michelle Obama and predecessor George W Bush.”
Phrasing!