 |
| https://www.grammarly.com/blog/comma-splice/ |
So, this first comma splice video came to me via my colleague Amber Lemiere at LCC.
It came at the right time to teach students in my classes some basic writing stuff.
It's a cute video, and it shares a cute mnemonic that I did not know for remembering the coordinating conjunctions that one uses with commas.
Conjunction mnemonic: FANBOYS - For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So.
After the TAMU (Texas A&M) video, I added two more that I liked. The first guy, from EngVid, is after my heart with the same wardrobe I employ - a comic book themed t-shirt under a long sleeve shirt that I invariably have to take off when I get too hot.
Some good stuff in that video, but I am dubious about this sentence and it's comma (italics for text contrast):
James has not been to Barcelona, nor has he lived in London.
James, the video narrator, suggests a comma in this sentence. Seems to me that the second clause is dubiously complete. "Has he lived in London" would normally be a question, but as a standard clause it's not in the right order: "he has lived in London." And yet, "Has he lived in London" would be considered a complete question.
I am picking nits because I am sure James would not release a video in which he makes an error. After all, the sentence contains both a subject (he) and a verb (has lived) despite the order of the words, and so the clause qualifies as complete.
However, my first impression was that it looked incomplete, especially because it lacks the usual "neither-nor" structure that one should employ when using the word nor.
Still, I like James' style. The transcript and comments for the video follow below.
The other video has more rules, and I like the completeness, though the presenter is less dynamic and amusing. Nevertheless, I considered at another video, but the presenter suggested putting commas where one pauses, and I really hate that advice. NO PAUSES. Our modern language is so broken that there are no standard pauses, and even when language was more formally delivered by and large people still paused at will and subjectively. The system works some of the time and works with some speakers, but it's no substitute or short cut to knowing the rules.
And so, here are the videos. Enjoy.
Do you know how to use commas? In this lesson, you'll learn simple rules for using commas with coordinating conjunctions. Coordinating conjunctions connect two ideas or clauses in a sentence. We'll look at the most common conjunctions: 'for', 'and', 'nor', 'but', 'or', 'yet', and 'so'. Knowing how to place commas in your sentences will help you to write better, and will make your writing easier to read. This grammar lesson is essential for anyone who wants to improve their English writing. It is especially important for university writing, or if you're taking IELTS or TOEFL. So join me in this fun lesson, and learn to love the comma! And take the quiz on this lesson at http://www.engvid.com/writing-skills-... TRANSCRIPT Fanboy and Comma girl, a love story. By Mr. E. Hi. I'm James from engVid. And you're probably wondering: What the hell am I talking about? Fanboy and Comma... Comma Girl, okay? She's a superhero, and our boy loves her. In case you don't know what a fanboy is because you may not follow comics or movies as religiously as these guys do, I've got a definition for you. So let's just read: What is a "fanboy"? A person who is loyal to a game, person, or company, regardless if it sucks or not. That's not quite true, but what they are talking about is that fanboys love their products. If they love Apple, it is the best the universe has ever produced. And if Apple does something wrong, help them, somebody help them because they will be angry. But generally put, they just love their products so much, they let everybody know about them. Anybody with ears that will listen or who cannot escape from them. All right? So how does this have anything to do with English and grammar? Well, this is a grammar lesson, and I find sometimes grammar can be incredibly boring, so let's make it a little bit fun. So we created a love story by Mr. E. Now, let's start off with comma. Because what is this lesson about? It's how, well, conjunctions, which I'm going to get to, work with commas and sentences. Some of you might have problems with them, I mean, some of you might even go: "Conjunctions, what are they?" So I'm going to talk about the most common conjunctions, and I'm going to talk about comma usage. Okay? We're going to do a quick lesson, here, and I'll make it fun. You ready? So the first thing we should talk about is a comma. What is a comma? It's a punctuation mark. When you have sentences, there's a time to take a breath or to complete it. Okay? Now, periods, you may know, end sentences or ends thoughts. A comma sometimes gives us a breath or it gives us a pause between parts of a sentence, or gives you time to catch your breath, or get part of an idea. Okay? We also use it for lists. There's Frank, okay? Frank, Billy, John, Susie, you know, lists. Lists of things. Knives, forks, scissors, dah, dah, dah, and you'll have comma, comma, comma, separating them, keeping them individual. And finally, we can also... Well, there's more uses, but these are general. We can use them for numbers, large numbers. You know this, we can say 1,000, there'll be a comma to indicate 1,000, and two commas to indicate 1,000,000. So largers... Numbers larger than 1,000, you'll have commas somewhere. All right? That's basically what the comma is used for. Three different uses. So, what are fanboys? Well, I told you they're excited about everything, right? Well, there's a little bit more than that. They're conjunctions. If we look here, I wrote "conjunction", and I put exactly what a conjunction is. It means to join something together. In this case, when we have usually conjunctions, we join two ideas together. If we use a conjunction with a comma, normally you're going to have clauses, and the clauses will be balanced or equal. Okay? Later on we'll go into all of that, but that's what's going to happen when we have usually a comma and a conjunction. You know, there are clauses being used and they're balanced. But: "What are the conjunctions?" you might ask. Well, let's start off with... These are the basic ones. There are more, but these are the most common ones, and we use this acronym which is a word made up from the first letter of each word so you have something that's easy to remember, and I chose FANBOYS. And in a second, I'll reveal why. "For", it gives you a reason. Why did they do this? Okay? "And" ideas that go together.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2003.03 - 10:10
- Days ago = 1704 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
No comments:
Post a Comment