No More Commas. No, More Commas.
The comma. It’s not as definitive as its brother the period or as emphatic as cousin exclamation. Many times the comma is neglected and unemployed; used where it is not needed and left out where it is. I admit I play pretty fast and loose with the comma, but that’s just how I roll. All told, I figure I use more commas then most people and therefore I am helping keep the little grammar tadpole alive.
This video by the Brazilian Press Association is brilliant. It ticks all my boxes: It is clever, it promotes free speech and it’s well designed. Let’s hear it for the comma!
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October 2nd, 2008 at 8:01 am
What, no mention of the closely related colon and semi-colon? These poor guys, so often misused, and now getting no love at at; a shame really.
October 3rd, 2008 at 10:27 pm
It’s funny that you bring up the use or lack of use for the comma. Just the other day, I was telling a friend about a test I took on drafting a letter. Easy right? Well, you would think so, however, do you indent or is each paragraph flush? Instinct told me to draft the letter flush, then I thought about what they taught in grammer school so I indented.
Hmm, after speaking to a few people who had different opinions, the end result was more people would draft a letter flush even though they thought the proper way was to indent.
What does this all mean? I don’t know, all I know is that who knows when to use a comma (although, I may fall in the same group as you and over use the little tadpole myself), who knows when to indent? I guess you do what your instincts tell you to do and hope you you look like you know what your doing.
October 6th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
This is an interesting post. Commas are definitely very important, the meaning to a sentence can be completely different without using commas.
October 10th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Excellent - grammar’s important!
Can they do a video telling people the difference between “there”, “their” and “they’re”?!
October 10th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Good point. My other pet peeve is when people write ‘would of’ or ‘could of’ since it should be clear that makes no sense.
Of course correcting my grammar is still one of my mom’s hobbies.
October 19th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
If you like commas then you should read 20th century Irish author Francis Stewart - he only used the comma and full stops for punctuation in his novels. Nothing else.
November 13th, 2008 at 4:18 am
I agree with the guy at the top who said that the colon and semi-colon are definitely underused. Especially the semi-colon. I mean; there must be a reason that the semi-colon as opposed to the colon is the default on most all keyboards, whereas the colon requires the use of the shift key, no?
November 14th, 2008 at 4:07 am
The internet, emials, cell phones and so on are all killing good grammar and punctuation anyway
November 15th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
What would think Marcel Proust about the near death of commas? He that used so much of them to build that long, spiraling, wonderful phrases in his book?
November 17th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
Yea but actually in Denmark, kids have lectures in how to spell correct, when they use their cell phones
November 21st, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Email and texting is grinding not only grammar skills but social interaction.
November 24th, 2008 at 11:51 am
It seems protestors have the worst grammar. They’d get their point across better if they could actually punctuate it correctly.
December 21st, 2008 at 2:33 pm
I used to type quick chat years ago, but I just decided not to because of bad habit… I now really hate to see it, and I honestly think that it’s dying out… I probably use commas much more than the average person, and that’s probably too much to be honest! Hehe
Interesting post though
Thanks a lot!
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:38 pm
That was hilarious. As a grammar freak, something about that video filled me with unimaginable glee!
January 4th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Hilarious indeed! But this post, and the video, made me realize how important a comma is - especially with monetary concerns. Also, when we input figures in a spreadsheet, we should be careful with that.
January 7th, 2009 at 6:43 am
Thank you for this great video. Many people don’t use comma in what they write over the Internet. Makes it hard to read it. Let’s hear it for the comma!
January 15th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
After reading a lot of news stories on British news sites, I’ve come to notice that Brits use commas less often than those in the US. Anybody else notice this?
February 10th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Yes i have also noticed that Brits uses comma less then the Americans. More over regarding the deteriorating condition of grammar, i would say there is not much attention given to it then what is required.