Tag Archives: punctuation

A Learning Support on Using a Comma Between Repeated Words like Is Is, In In, and That That

Here is a learning support on using a comma between repeated words like is is, in in, and that that. This is the ninth of fifteen related learning supports on the use of the comma. (You can find an excursus on this choice of publishing practice here.)

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

A Learning Support on Using a Comma to Indicate Omitted Words in a Repeated Pattern

Here is a learning support on using a comma to indicate omitted words in a repeated pattern. This is the eighth of fifteen related supports on commas on this blog. (You can find an excursus on this choice of publishing practice here.)

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

A Learning Support on Using a Comma to Set off a Quotation

Here is a learning support on using a comma to set off a quotation. This is the seventh of fifteen forthcoming learning supports on quotations. (You can find an excursus on this choice of publishing practice here.)

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

A Learning Support on Using a Comma to Indicate Direct Address

Here is a learning support on using a comma to indicate direct address. This is the sixth of a total of fifteen of these documents on commas. (You can find an excursus on this choice of publishing practice here.)

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

A Learning Support on Using a Comma to Set off a Nonrestrictive or Parenthetical Word, Phrase, or Clause

OK, last but not least today, here is a learning support on using a comma to set off a nonrestrictive or parenthetical word, phrase, or clause. This is the fifth of fifteen forthcoming posts on learning supports for using the comma in prose. (You can find an excursus on this choice of publishing practice here.)

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

A Learning Support on Using a Comma to Separate Clauses

Here is a learning support on using a comma to separate clauses. This is the fourth of a total of fifteen learning supports on using the comma forthcoming on Mark’s Text Terminal. (You can find an excursus on this choice of publishing practice here.)

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

A Learning Support on the Use of a Comma after an Introductory Word or Phrase

Here is a learning support on the use of a comma after an introductory word or phrase. This is the third of fifteen learning supports on using the comma forthcoming on this blog. (You can find an excursus on this choice of publishing practice here.)

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

A Learning Support on Using Commas to Separate Items in a Series

Here is a learning support on using commas in a series. This is the second of fifteen posts of learning supports on using commas. (You can find an excursus on this choice of publishing practice here.)

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

An Introductory Learning Support on Using the Comma

Here is an introductory learning support on using the comma. This is the first of fifteen of these I will post in the next few weeks, which I expect merits an explanation.

Somewhere, either in Tropic of Cancer, Black Spring, or Tropic of Capricorn (I read all three in one compulsive gulp about thirty years ago), i.e. Henry Miller’sObelisk Trilogy,” the author asserts (I paraphrase, but closely, because in spite of hours of research, I cannot find the direct quote online, and I don’t want to spend the money or time to buy the books and find the sentence) that it’s easier to describe the philosophy of Nietzsche than it is to teach adequately the proper use of the comma. Oscar Wilde famously made his own remarks about the use of the comma, which is a little easier (but much more complex in its origin) to track down, which I was able to do thanks to the excellent website Quote Investigator.

Commas tend to bedevil me as well; indeed, I have had a tendency to overuse them. For years, I have meant of create an extensive reference library on the multitudinous uses of the comma in prose. Using what I think is the best punctuation manual in print, I have at last done so. As I post each of them, should you choose to download them, you will notice they vary considerably in length. After thinking about this for several weeks, I decided to use the same major subdivisions that the author uses in her manual.

However, as you may see, there are numerous minor subdivisions within most of these documents. It may be that these need to be broken up further. Because these are Microsoft Word documents, you are able to manipulate these materials to suit your needs. If I’d broken them up myself, this project would have taken much longer than it did, which was plenty long per se.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Ellipsis

“Ellipsis: The omission of an element of language for reasons associated with speech, rhetoric, grammar, and punctuation. The omitted element can usually be recovered by considering the context of what has been said or written, In speech and writing, sounds and letters are often left out of words: in the sentence She said he’d come, he’d is elliptical for either he had or he would. Such contractions are informal and usually arise from speed of delivery, economy of effort, and the rhythm of the language. At times, elliptical speech or writing is so concise that listeners and readers must supply missing elements through guesswork or special knowledge, but it they cannot, they fail to understand. Information can be left out or hinted at for reasons of style or discretion; in such areas as politics, diplomacy, and negotiation, remarks are often elliptical in nature and intent….”

Excerpted from: McArthur, Tom. The Oxford Concise Companion to the English Language. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.