Commas... Commas Everywhere!

[Androxine Vortex]

I know that they are certain rules on when you have to use a comma but since a comma represents a break or a pause, couldn't you technically use them at anytime to add effect? This could be useful in dialogue to break up sentences to maybe show a character is flustered or confused. Could it also work for a narrative purpose?

 

[Steerpike]

Yes, you can use or eliminate a comma to achieve a specific effect. This shouldn't be done haphazardly, because you don't want to give the impression that you don't know what you are doing, but there are times I add a comma for effect, or remove one that should technically be there because I want the sentence to flow differently.

 

[BWFoster78]

I would add emphasis to what Steerpike says.

If you're gonna do it, do it rarely. For one thing, it can make it look like you don't know the rule. For another, anything overused loses impact.

 

[Androxine Vortex]

No, I, don't, plan, on, over, using, them, at, all.

 

[Chilari]

I believe Terry, Pratchett had the character Captain Carrot Ironfounderson write, letters home, in which he used commas wherever he thought they belonged, since he knew they were, useful but didn't know, how to use them.

Don't do that. Do what Steerpike said.

It's more forgivable in dialogue or, as with the example above, in a letter written by someone whose grasp of writing is not particularly refined, but in any other context it has the potential to pull a reader right out of immersion and get annoyed as a result.

 

[Anders Ämting]

I don't really mind commas. They're good for what they are intended to be used for, which is to add pauses and keeping your text from turning into an unrelenting torrent of words. I think it's more important to know when to use the dot and actually end your sentences.

The worst abusers of commas, as far as I've seen, tend to be the ones who never appear to want to end their sentences, and just keep using commas and adding more text, text that could just as well have been individual sentences, as if the author is afraid they'll lose the reader's attention the moment they end the sentence and need to drag it out for as long as the subject lasts, which of course results in ludicrously long sentences.

 

[Penpilot]

No, I, don't, plan, on, over, using, them, at, all.

Is that you Mr. Shatner?

 

[Androxine Vortex]

Is that you Mr. Shatner?

lololololololololol

 

[Chime85]

Commas can completely change the meaning of a sentence too, for example:

I helped my uncle Jack, off a horse.

I helped my uncle, jack off a horse.

With a misplaced comma, it's amazing how differently the same sentence can turn out.

 

[FatCat]

Commas can completely change the meaning of a sentence too, for example:

I helped my uncle Jack, off a horse.

I helped my uncle, jack off a horse.

With a misplaced comma, it's amazing how differently the same sentence can turn out.

.................

 

[Mindfire]

The capital letters make an even bigger difference than the comma in that case.

 

[Penpilot]

Commas can completely change the meaning of a sentence too, for example:

I helped my uncle Jack, off a horse.

I helped my uncle, jack off a horse.

With a misplaced comma, it's amazing how differently the same sentence can turn out.

Ohhhh... I haven't seen this type of example in a while. Thanks for the chuckle. I needed that. :bounce:

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

Ohhhh... I haven't seen this type of example in a while. Thanks for the chuckle. I needed that. :bounce:

Actually, here's one where it's only the comma that makes the difference:

Let's eat, Grandma!

Let's eat Grandma!

I tend to use a few too many commas and only realize later that I can strip them out. <- For example, in that sentence, I think it'd be better to have a comma after "commas", because when I'm reading it, I expect the phrase "commas and" to have something like "semicolons" after the "and". But instead, the "and" is joining the second clause; to me, the sentence reads easier if there's a comma before the and. (Hm, maybe technically there is supposed to be a comma there. I've never been entirely clear on that.)

 

[JCFarnham]

(Hm, maybe technically there is supposed to be a comma there. I've never been entirely clear on that.)

I've always assumed this to be the case, but like you have never gotten along with that rule. It doesn't look natural to me, but, lo and behold, I've been told to put commas before ands, buts and the like.

Truthfully, it probably only applied when it becomes a list. But don't you also need to separate clauses more than just and some how?

So you see the trouble.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

Wikipedia gives some rules about clause separation with commas. I tend to eliminate commas if the sentence reads fine without it, without considering any of the formal rules.

 

[Androxine Vortex]

I remember one time I was watching a show with my little brother and a mean grumpy guy help up a sign at the pool that said, "ADULT SWIM NO KIDS ALLOWED." Then one of the characters used a marker and changed the sign so that it read, "ADULT SWIM? No! KIDS ALLOWED!" I thought that was clever.

 

[Benjamin Clayborne]

I remember one time I was watching a show with my little brother and a mean grumpy guy help up a sign at the pool that said, "ADULT SWIM NO KIDS ALLOWED." Then one of the characters used a marker and changed the sign so that it read, "ADULT SWIM? No! KIDS ALLOWED!" I thought that was clever.

Punctuation Man strikes again!