A newsletter for the students, faculty and staff of the Collin County Community College District. Published monthly. For information or submissions, call 972.758.3849. Cougar News welcomes student and faculty submissions. Next deadline: Oct. 11 All submissions are due by 5 p.m. on the due date. Photos cannot be returned. Text should be emailed to mrobinson@ccccd.edu or sent on disk. Please submit copy that is proofed, edited and saved in Word format. Cougar News staff: Lisa Vasquez, director; Mark Robinson, editor; Marcy Cadena-Smith, contributor; Sydney Portilla-Diggs, student correspondent; Stephanie Hall, student correspondent; Nick Young, photographer; Layout by Publications
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The Write Way
By Joyce Marie Miller
For the first time since its inception six or so years ago, this column will focus exclusively on three of the seven standard rules of comma placement.
In part, the decision falls on the heels of the Writing Center's history of misplaced commas as the most common type of error in student papers. In equal part, the decision to devote the column to comma usage follows an esteemed colleague’s request (excerpt below): “On a cold, rainy night in old-town Plano, I began thinking about punctuation in adjective strings. Would you like to write a column on this often-confusing, valuable punctuation topic?”
Based on this request (correctly punctuated, by the way) as well as on the high number of errors in our students’ compositions, this editor decided to move beyond adjective strings (also known as "coordinate adjectives") to cover other basic rules of correct comma placement. Of course, space constraints won’t permit a thorough discussion of even these three rules, but perhaps the following brief introduction will lead readers to a handbook’s more extensive coverage and examples. Future columns will cover the remaining rules.
COORDINATE ADJECTIVES
To the confusing issue of adjective strings, the rule is simple, namely: Use commas to join coordinate (equal in rank) adjectives (adjectives that modify the SAME noun or its substitute). Test by reversing the words. You can also test their equality by joining the adjectives with the conjunction “and.” If the meaning of the sentence is wrecked, you do not have coordinate adjectives and therefore should NOT use commas.
Examples: “Melissa proved to be a kind, cooperative employee.” (“Melissa proved to be a kind and cooperative employee; Melissa proved to be a cooperative, kind employee.”)
BUT: “His azure blue eyes reminded me of my grandfather’s eyes.” Reversing the adjectives here would obviously wreck the sentence, proof in itself that they are not equally modifying the word “eyes.” You may wish to try testing my colleague’s message in these two ways as proof the two sentences are indeed correctly punctuated.
ESSENTIAL AND NON-ESSENTIAL EXPRESSIONS
An essential expression/element affects the basic meaning of the sentence whereas a non-essential one does not. Essential elements do not require commas. Placing commas on either side of a non-essential expression, however, indicates that the information within the commas may be informative but not crucial.
Hint: Reserve the pronoun “that” to introduce essential elements and the pronoun “which” to introduce non-essential ones. The pronoun “who” can introduce both types.
Examples: ”Collin Creek Mall, which was built in 1980, has enjoyed nearly two decades of prosperous growth.” (Removing the information about the construction date does not wreck the sentence.) “The suburban mall that has enjoyed the most prosperous growth in Texas is Collin Creek.” (Removing the information about growth would wreck the essential meaning of the sentence.) “Jane Smith, who is usually never at a loss for words, struggled to remember her lines during her acting debut.” “Jane Smith is the actress who is usually never at a loss of words’’{or} “The actress who is usually never at a loss for words is Jane Smith.”
JOINING INDEPENDENT CLAUSES IN COMPOUND SENTENCE STRUCTURES to avoid comma splices and run-on (fused) sentences: Use a comma AND a coordinating conjunction (“for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so”), or use a comma AND a correlative conjunction (“both/and; either/or; neither/nor; not only/but also”) to join independent clauses correctly, thereby avoiding comma splices and run-on sentences. Examples of independent clauses (note the correct comma placement): “Some of my friends are going to Europe this summer, but I am planning a trip to Mexico.” “I am not only planning a trip to Mexico, but also I am planning a trip to Egypt.” Examples of coordinating and correlative conjunctions NOT joining independent clauses (and therefore commas are unnecessary): “Some of my friends are going to Europe this summer and plan to go again next summer” (the words "plan to go again next summer" do not form an independent clause). “Some other friends are planning a trip not only to Europe but also to the Middle East” (the words "also to the Middle East" do not form an independent clause).
As always, I welcome suggestions from students, staff, and faculty for these monthly columns and shall try to use their contributions in future columns. Should you have a topic you’d like discussed here, please write me at jmiller@ccccd.edu . You may also telephone me at 972.881.5981. Students wishing improved writing skills will find useful links to a dozen or so English grammar sites at http://iws.ccccd.edu/jmiller/jmiller.htm .
Joyce Marie Miller is a professor of English at Collin.
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