"Let's eat, Dad" or "Let's eat Dad". A comma can make a big difference.
Is punctuation more important than spelling?
I think it is. After all, most spelling is not so far off that you can't work out what the writer means - and this country and the UK understands what Americans write despite substantial spelling differences.
But an error in punctuation can cause mayhem. And while spelling checkers can at least offer some options, there has been little success with grammar checkers and even less success with the aspect of those which check punctuation.
Of course there will be arguments about where many commas should be put. They were a source of more disagreement with my co-author, Geoffrey Heard, on our book Success in Store than any other subject. I use more commas than he does, but we also tend to use them in different places. However, we did agree on those where they could influence the meaning, and that is important.
Lawyers tend not to use commas and one explained that they need to make it clear that when a comma is included in a contract they have considered its placement and have decided it is necessary.
Despite that, there have been problems with contracts where vast sums have depended on the interpretation of meaning based on a comma.
We can point to some sites where problems caused by this humblest of punctuation marks is discussed:
The University of Hawaii's Hohonu, a journal of academic writing has a nice piece online by Andy Gramlich: Commas, the biggest little quirks in the English language http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/academics/hohonu/writing.php?id=82
Commas have saved a life. lost a million dollars or been blasphemous according to stories at http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/A2E17AAC-4E28-4EA7-B1FC-D5064B155006/
National Punctuation Day was a not massively successful promotion in the USA but sadly it seems to have disappeared. Last year (2008) it was on September 24, but that's not far off as I write and the site is still all about last year, though some are still useful like the piece at http://www.nationalpunctuationday.com/meaning.html .
My co-author (and now publisher) is probably right. I use too many commas. You can probably delete most in this article, but a few are needed, including, I hope, the very first one.
Is punctuation more important than spelling?
I think it is. After all, most spelling is not so far off that you can't work out what the writer means - and this country and the UK understands what Americans write despite substantial spelling differences.
But an error in punctuation can cause mayhem. And while spelling checkers can at least offer some options, there has been little success with grammar checkers and even less success with the aspect of those which check punctuation.
Of course there will be arguments about where many commas should be put. They were a source of more disagreement with my co-author, Geoffrey Heard, on our book Success in Store than any other subject. I use more commas than he does, but we also tend to use them in different places. However, we did agree on those where they could influence the meaning, and that is important.
Lawyers tend not to use commas and one explained that they need to make it clear that when a comma is included in a contract they have considered its placement and have decided it is necessary.
Despite that, there have been problems with contracts where vast sums have depended on the interpretation of meaning based on a comma.
We can point to some sites where problems caused by this humblest of punctuation marks is discussed:
The University of Hawaii's Hohonu, a journal of academic writing has a nice piece online by Andy Gramlich: Commas, the biggest little quirks in the English language http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/academics/hohonu/writing.php?id=82
Commas have saved a life. lost a million dollars or been blasphemous according to stories at http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/A2E17AAC-4E28-4EA7-B1FC-D5064B155006/
National Punctuation Day was a not massively successful promotion in the USA but sadly it seems to have disappeared. Last year (2008) it was on September 24, but that's not far off as I write and the site is still all about last year, though some are still useful like the piece at http://www.nationalpunctuationday.com/meaning.html .
My co-author (and now publisher) is probably right. I use too many commas. You can probably delete most in this article, but a few are needed, including, I hope, the very first one.
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