Post by NeoFriend1721 on Sept 9, 2004 17:51:33 GMT -5
[glow=purple,9,300]Commas
I'll begin this lesson by defining some acronyms for any readers who do not know their meanings already.
IC - "Independent Clause" A very basic sentence that could stand on its own (eg. The boy walked down the stairs).
DC - "Dependent Clause" An even more basic phrase. However, it is not a sentence on its own. It is missing key components, and thus has to be coupled with an Independent Clause to make a whole sentence.
Commas are quite simple, and have a very basic use. However, since people fail to understand or be taught the purpose, they seem to make errors such as overusage, or misuse. They tend to use commas to denote a pause, when that is not its purpose.
Let's say you have an IC ("Jimmy went to the corner store."), but was missing crucial information in it. Your teacher or whomever gave you the task, required "x" information in the sentence, but required it to be only 1 sentence.
What are you going to do?
First, I'll define "x" for you. X = "he forgot to tie his shoes before he left."
You need to couple the IC with "x". This is quite simple:
You turn "x" into a Dependent Clause by dropping the subject, and attach it to the IC. This leaves you with:
"Jimmy went to the corner store forgot to tie his shoes before he left."
Doesn't sound too good yet, does it?
So you add a comma. (Jimmy went to the corner store, forgot to tie his shoes before he left.)
The tenses are still wrong in the DC, so you fix that too and end up with this:
Jimmy went to the corner store, forgetting to tie his shoes before leaving.
That's all. Pretty simple, yes?
To try and put it in an even simpler, more abstract form: the comma is used to separate different, but linked, ideas (usually pretaining to a common subject).
So you have these equations:
IC.
IC, DC.
DC, IC.
The "DC, IC." is the passive voice. I'll get into that in a later lesson, so don't worry about it for now.
There are other uses for the comma, as I'm sure you noticed in this post. These are the "Apositive", "List", and "Trasitions".
LIST
I'm sure you all were taught in gradeschool that when listing things you separate them with a comma.
eg. I went to the store and bought eggs, bread, butter, jam, chips, soda, water, and some lunch bags because I thought we were out.
That's basically it. Whenever you're naming 1 or more word of the same time (adjective, adverb, or noun), you separate it with a comma.
Another example:
"The grey and white, fat, ugly, old cow walked lazily across the lawn."
TRANSITIONS
The transition is used to make your language flow more smoothly when read. Words such as "However", "Although", "Though", etc.
Whenever you use a transition at the start or end of a sentence (the end of a sentence is not the proper place, but it's used informally so much that people more-or-less ignore that aspect of writing now days), you separate it from the rest of the sentence with a comma. This is because it is a word that has to do with the main idea of the sentence, but is being used to further explain what it is.
Example: You spend three paragraphs explaining why a movie sucked. But then you run across something that's good. So you start out your next sentence with "However, ... blah blah blah". The "However" is used to say "Hey, look at this. It's opposite of what I've been talking about!" But you're still using it to talk about the good thing, right? So it is in that sentence, but separated by a comma.
Same goes for the end of a sentence: "I would have held the nail up to you so you could get it quicker. I was afraid it would stick in your hand when you reached down, though."
APOSITIVE
This is a phrase embedded in a sentence to further describe a noun. It's a pretty easy idea, so I'll be breif.
"My teacher, Ms. Genovese, wasn't in class today."
The bold part is the apositive. "My teacher" and "Ms. Genovese" are the same person. But I have 6 teachers, so which one am I talking about? I'm talking about Ms. Genovese. That's an apositive. Something that further describes a noun.
It could work the other way, too.
"Ms. Genovese, my Science teacher, wasn't in class today."
Well... who is Ms. Genovese? Say I don't go to your school. I don't know! Well, I just told you: she's my Science teacher.
You always separate an apositive by two commas: One at the beginning and one at the end of said apositive. [/glow]
I'll begin this lesson by defining some acronyms for any readers who do not know their meanings already.
IC - "Independent Clause" A very basic sentence that could stand on its own (eg. The boy walked down the stairs).
DC - "Dependent Clause" An even more basic phrase. However, it is not a sentence on its own. It is missing key components, and thus has to be coupled with an Independent Clause to make a whole sentence.
Commas are quite simple, and have a very basic use. However, since people fail to understand or be taught the purpose, they seem to make errors such as overusage, or misuse. They tend to use commas to denote a pause, when that is not its purpose.
Let's say you have an IC ("Jimmy went to the corner store."), but was missing crucial information in it. Your teacher or whomever gave you the task, required "x" information in the sentence, but required it to be only 1 sentence.
What are you going to do?
First, I'll define "x" for you. X = "he forgot to tie his shoes before he left."
You need to couple the IC with "x". This is quite simple:
You turn "x" into a Dependent Clause by dropping the subject, and attach it to the IC. This leaves you with:
"Jimmy went to the corner store forgot to tie his shoes before he left."
Doesn't sound too good yet, does it?
So you add a comma. (Jimmy went to the corner store, forgot to tie his shoes before he left.)
The tenses are still wrong in the DC, so you fix that too and end up with this:
Jimmy went to the corner store, forgetting to tie his shoes before leaving.
That's all. Pretty simple, yes?
To try and put it in an even simpler, more abstract form: the comma is used to separate different, but linked, ideas (usually pretaining to a common subject).
So you have these equations:
IC.
IC, DC.
DC, IC.
The "DC, IC." is the passive voice. I'll get into that in a later lesson, so don't worry about it for now.
There are other uses for the comma, as I'm sure you noticed in this post. These are the "Apositive", "List", and "Trasitions".
LIST
I'm sure you all were taught in gradeschool that when listing things you separate them with a comma.
eg. I went to the store and bought eggs, bread, butter, jam, chips, soda, water, and some lunch bags because I thought we were out.
That's basically it. Whenever you're naming 1 or more word of the same time (adjective, adverb, or noun), you separate it with a comma.
Another example:
"The grey and white, fat, ugly, old cow walked lazily across the lawn."
TRANSITIONS
The transition is used to make your language flow more smoothly when read. Words such as "However", "Although", "Though", etc.
Whenever you use a transition at the start or end of a sentence (the end of a sentence is not the proper place, but it's used informally so much that people more-or-less ignore that aspect of writing now days), you separate it from the rest of the sentence with a comma. This is because it is a word that has to do with the main idea of the sentence, but is being used to further explain what it is.
Example: You spend three paragraphs explaining why a movie sucked. But then you run across something that's good. So you start out your next sentence with "However, ... blah blah blah". The "However" is used to say "Hey, look at this. It's opposite of what I've been talking about!" But you're still using it to talk about the good thing, right? So it is in that sentence, but separated by a comma.
Same goes for the end of a sentence: "I would have held the nail up to you so you could get it quicker. I was afraid it would stick in your hand when you reached down, though."
APOSITIVE
This is a phrase embedded in a sentence to further describe a noun. It's a pretty easy idea, so I'll be breif.
"My teacher, Ms. Genovese, wasn't in class today."
The bold part is the apositive. "My teacher" and "Ms. Genovese" are the same person. But I have 6 teachers, so which one am I talking about? I'm talking about Ms. Genovese. That's an apositive. Something that further describes a noun.
It could work the other way, too.
"Ms. Genovese, my Science teacher, wasn't in class today."
Well... who is Ms. Genovese? Say I don't go to your school. I don't know! Well, I just told you: she's my Science teacher.
You always separate an apositive by two commas: One at the beginning and one at the end of said apositive. [/glow]