POWER OF PAGES
  • Welcome
    • Brenda Haas
    • Contact Brenda Haas
  • Brenda's Blog
  • Writing Resources
  • Raising a Reader
  • Teaching a Reader

Come on, comma ...

3/30/2018

0 Comments

 
I'm keeping this short, today, folks ... short, and nicely punctuated with commas.

Commas are, in my estimation, one of the hardest elements of the English language. However, if you have a good ear for what sounds natural, any writer can improve and become more comfortable with using that dangling thingamajig.

#1 TIP - LISTEN. If I could give a writer just one tip to mastering the use of the comma, it would be to LISTEN. Read your material out loud. Even if you are not a great self-editor or don't want to get caught up in all the "rules" of proper comma usage, by listening to what you're reading and placing commas at any spots where you naturally pause, you will likely solve 90% of your comma issues.

I'll say that again, but without all the commas. Read the following aloud without ANY pauses:

Even if you are not a great self-editor or don't want to get caught up in all the "rules" of proper comma usage by listening to what you're reading and placing commas at any spots where you naturally pause you will likely solve 90% of your comma issues.

Can you hear how odd the same sentence sounds without any pauses ... or commas? It's both confusing and borderline robotic. That's not how a person speaks. It also shouldn't be how a person writes.

SO, LISTEN. Just listen. Reading your work aloud may not be a foolproof way to self-edit (Heck, commas have so much room for interpretation, I'm sure there are some English majors out there reading this and shaking their heads at MY comma usage, as we speak), but it will certainly help to clean up a ton of questionable grammar. Often, it is not the misplacement of a comma that is the problem, but a complete lack of using a comma where you need one.

Just LISTEN. Pauses need commas.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

      Want to automatically receive future blogs?

    Subscribe to Blog

    RSS Feed

    Picture

    Writer

    Brenda Haas is currently a feature writer for Leisure Living Magazine, covering the Shores & Islands Ohio region. She also freelances for nonprofits and is well-versed in public relations, marketing, and editing. She spent many years as a reporter and columnist for a Pittsburgh press. Her writing has appeared in Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and My Outer Banks Home magazine, among other publications.

    Brenda lived in the Pittsburgh, PA area for more than 20 years. She now resides in Lakeside, OH, a circa-1870s Lake Erie community attracting generations of annual vacationers, artists, and educators. It serves as the vintage setting for her debut novel — Finding Sutton’s Choice (Orange Hat Publishing/Ten16 Press, release May 2025).

    Works-in-Progress
    Women's Fiction:
    - Sutton's Second Chance
    - Here or There on Beddington Bluff

    Young Adult:
    - Hells of Southgate
    - Forest for the Trees


    Archives

    March 2025
    August 2024
    July 2023
    October 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    July 2014
    June 2014
    July 2013
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012



    Follow on Twitter:
    @HaasBren



Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.