When I'm writing first draft, I use commas and full stops like machine gun bullets, then go back and take a hard look make changes myself before I get some editing done, (much further along, you can tell I don't edit from my punctuation in these posts)
One of the places I am forever placing a comma is before "and" my understanding is you can do it as long as the next part will stand alone without the word and.
The part I don't get is, I have been reading dickens recently and because of the "," issue I decided to take more notice, his work has the comma before "and" and "but" everywhere, the same with another book I am reading just now "The Screwtape Letters. Full of the same thing so,,,,, my question is if these great and old works have the comma and "and" have things changed or am I losing it.
Paul G
Hi Paul,
I read my chapters out loud many times and wherever I stumble I re-work the sentence. I like my text to be 'real' conversational. This method doesn't pick up all errors but it does pick up a lot. 'And' after a comma often sounds completely wrong and sometimes it sounds right.
Thank you all. I never check my punctuation when I post so it will probably, well sometimes just be one long sentence. I used commas where I felt they should be, (note used) as I heard the words in my head, and when my imaginary friends come out to play on the page, well I tend to right as I speak or even worse, as I think. Now that one can be scary, I have no filter between brain and mouth when I speak, so it is a good job I don't swear! I have to admit I have learned (or learnt, depending on which university I suppose.) a lot from people's posts, it was from a thread a few weeks ago where it was being discussed and agreed on, that one never ever uses a comma after an and. I looked at my M/S and cringed. Now I will go back to punctuating. as! see; fit: and' hope., get" it... something: like, right. sorry really bad visual joke, but they are the only jokes I know.
Thanks again for your imput. Paul G
Commas (and other punctuation) are there to make sentences intelligible. If our sentences were all barking orders, without a subordinate clause or a list in sight, we wouldn’t need commas. But that would make our writing a bit dull.
By the way, Victoria gives a good example of the Oxford comma on this thread; it needs to be there to avoid the reader thinking Abercrombie and Fitch have a new business partner. On another recent thread though…
Not all commas before ‘and’ are called Oxford commas. Consider subordinate clauses, where commas are paired either side, and remember they could be followed by ‘and.’
Pedantic, moi?