By Margaret Williams, Teaching Assistant, English Department, Western Carolina University<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s talk about commas. Punctuation. You know. Grammar. At Western Carolina University\u2019s Writing and Learning Commons (the \u201cWaLC\u201d), we see many students who ask for help with \u201cgrammar\u201d when the real focus of their anxiety is when to use a comma (or not).<\/p>\n
Yes, I know I\u2019ve violated the \u201crules\u201d already. And I hesitate to call punctuation \u201cgrammar,\u201d in the same sense that we talk about subject-verb agreement or those dang dangling modifiers. But a week or so ago, I read in The New Yorker<\/em> how the lack of a comma saved the day<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cThe case of the Maine milk-truck drivers who, for want of a comma, won an appeal against their employer, Oakhurst Dairy, regarding overtime pay (O\u2019Connor v. Oakhurst Dairy) has warmed the hearts of punctuation enthusiasts everywhere, from the great dairy state of Wisconsin to the cheese haven of Holland.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The omitted comma cost Oakhurst Dairy about $10 million dollars, says the magazine\u2019s \u201cCulture Desk\u201d writer, Mary Norris. She notes our love-hate relationship with punctuation, specifically what grammarians call the Oxford or serial comma. Most newspapers drop the last comma in a series, per Associated Press Stylebook guidelines. But The New Yorker \u201c<\/em>deploy[s] the serial [or Oxford] comma, along with lots of other lip-smacking bits of punctuation, as a bulwark against barbarianism,\u201d says Norris. Witness a newspaper example that she provides:<\/p>\n \u201cThe next day, I enjoyed pan-roasted oysters with a tomato sauce over rice, broccoli salad and bread pudding with chocolate sauce.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Pointing out the distasteful ambiguity suggested by the omission of the Oxford comma, Norris remarks, \u201cA comma after \u2018broccoli salad\u2019 would have cleared the table before dessert.\u201d<\/p>\n I agree. Just the same, I\u2019m a recovering journalist, with more than 20 years\u2019 experience at a newspaper where we routinely dropped the Oxford comma. Once, I got a phone call from a reader who was particularly upset about the absence of an Oxford comma in a phrase we had used on the latest cover. I don\u2019t recall what the offending phrase was, but we talked for more than 30 minutes and, in the end, agreed to disagree.<\/p>\n These days, I\u2019m ensconced in academia, so I have re-admitted the Oxford comma into my repertoire. But what about other uses for commas? The rules aren\u2019t sacred, no matter how well we argue about them. Is there a wrong <\/em>or right <\/em>way to punctuate the following sentence?<\/p>\n (1) Slowly, he walked to the store. <\/em><\/p>\n (2) He walked, slowly, to the store. <\/em><\/p>\n (3) He walked to the store slowly.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I draw the above example from Peter Dawkins. In \u201cTeaching Punctuation as a Rhetorical Tool\u201d<\/a> (1995), he suggests that we adapt new ways of helping students understand how to punctuate sentences and phrases. \u201cConventional punctuation is grammar-based\u2014marks are prescribed in terms of grammatical structure\u2014but what \u2018good writers\u2019 do \u2026 \u00a0is punctuate according to their intended meaning, their intended emphasis,\u201d says Dawkins. By \u201cgood writers\u201d he means such greats as Annie Dillard, E.B. White, Joan Didion, E.M. Forster, George Orwell, and many others. Dawkins dubs Forster \u201cthe great comma splicer,\u201d offering this example, which we would, undoubtedly, point out and correct if a student visiting the WaLC included such a merging of sentences in an academic essay:<\/p>\n \u201cHe could not stand the insecurities that are customary between officials, he refused to make use of the face-saving apparatus that they so liberally provide and employ.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Such comma splices make me antsy, to say the least. I\u2019ve corrected quite a few in my newspaper-editor days. But what if we follow Dawkins\u2019 cue and, instead of playing punctuation pushers, help student writers understand how they can use punctuation for rhetorical effect? Here\u2019s Joan Didion:<\/p>\n \u201cI gravitated to the random. I swung with the non-sequential.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n She could have used a semi-colon, but the hard-stop of the period accents her point, says Dawkins. And, if I allow his notions about comma splices, Didion could just as well have separated these thoughts with a comma, simply to show less of a separation\u2014or more of a close relationship\u2014between them. Dawkins offers this example from E.B. White:<\/p>\n \u201cThe great days have faded. The end is in sight.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe great days have faded; the end is in sight.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe great days have faded, the end is in sight.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Which level of punctuation did E.B. White use? He is one of the American writers most often included in essay anthologies. I can still recall a long-ago professor, charged with teaching us how to teach writing to freshmen, going gaga-eyes over White\u2019s famous essay, \u201cOnce More to the Lake.\u201d But White, you see, used a comma splice in the above instance, says Dawkins. The horror! Hmm.<\/p>\n In this meandering comma-fest, I\u2019m sure I\u2019m not doing full justice to Dawkins\u2019 arguments, by the way. While he doesn\u2019t talk directly about the ol\u2019 Oxford comma, he clarifies that his suggestions don\u2019t extend to times when we need punctuation to avoid confusion. Here\u2019s the sentence, with its missing Oxford comma, that got the dairy company into millions of dollars of trouble:<\/p>\n \u201cThe canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of: (1) Agricultural produce; (2) Meat and fish products; and (3) Perishable foods.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The lack of a comma after \u201cshipment\u201d is what proved costly. Fortunately, the possible implications of student-writers\u2019 use of punctuation\u2014or misuse, in our more practiced eyes\u2014are rarely so serious. But give Dawkins a read. Consider how you, a more experienced writer, use punctuation for rhetorical purposes. Then ponder how you can help student writers say what they want to say, with just the right intent.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n REFERENCES:<\/p>\n Dawkins, J. (1995). Punctuation as a rhetorical tool. College Composition and Communication<\/em>, 46<\/em>(4), 533-548.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Margaret Williams, Teaching Assistant, English Department, Western Carolina University Let\u2019s talk about commas. Punctuation. You know. Grammar. At Western Carolina University\u2019s Writing and Learning Commons (the \u201cWaLC\u201d), we see many students who ask for help with \u201cgrammar\u201d when…
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