Category: Language Arts

The Rules of Comma Use

Dr. H. gave us a quick refresher on how to use commas this afternoon. Of course, like a true academic, he started with the caveat that, like any other rules of language, the way we use commas has changed over time, and is constantly evolving. Punctuation was initially designed to help the verbal reader, but has developed into a tool to help clarify syntax.

The Rules

From my notes on Dr. H’s presentation: use commas to:

  1. Separate things in a list.
    • eg: The flag for Equatorial Guinea is blue, green, white, and red.
    • One potential issue with these commas is the last one, the serial comma, which I tend to find very useful in separating ideas, particularly in complex sentences.
  2. To separate “sentences” (i.e. clauses)
    • Bob talks in class ________ he’s not always on task.
      • you can insert into the space:
        • conjunction with a comma: “, and”
        • “however,” with a semi-colon or a period: “. However,”
        • semi-colon: “;”
        • period: “.”
  3. To indicate “interrupts”
    • These are my favorites, because you can use them like parentheses to isolate clauses and clarify the meaning. I have been accused, by someone who shall remain unnamed, of overusing them.
    • e.g.: The boy, bothered by the noise in the room, wandered down to his quiet place.
    • e.g.: Mary considered her possibilities and, after a period of reflection, came to the conclusion that doing something was in order.
  4. DO NOT USE commas between the subject and verb of a sentence (unless absolutely necessary).

A key thing to remember though, particularly with things like the serial comma, is that you need to be consistent. The syntax of language may evolve over time, but usually not within a single document.

A Guide to Better Blogging

Dan Frommer has posted a guide called, “10 steps to better blogging“. His rules are aimed at commercial bloggers/journalists, but even for the hobbyist/student there are some noteworthy points (certainly ones I try to follow):

  • 1. Accuracy is essential: Be forthright about errors and fix them.
  • 4. Cite your sources: It’s honest, and honorable to give credit where it’s due.
  • 7. Grammar and spelling are important: You don’t necessarily have to use the Queen’s English but use language intentionally.
  • 10. Try new things: It’s a new medium so there are lots of areas for discovery.

Most of these are just the basic elements of good writing.

I’d also suggest that it’s important to include your perspective wherever you can. There are a number of great places that aggregate a lot of good information, but for the aspiring writer, adding your unique point of view should help find your voice.

(found via The Dish).

How do Writers get Symbolism into their Writing?

A “symbol” grows in its own way, out of the facts

— Saul Bellow (1963). (via Butler, 2011 in The Paris Review).

Bruce McAllister wrote 150 authors asking if they intentionally put symbolism in their writing. The year was 1963 and McAllister was 16 at the time. Sarah Butler has posted some of the 75 responses McAllister received.

The responses are quite facinating and quite diverse. One common theme, though, was well expressed in the answers to the question, “Do you feel you consciously plan and place symbolism in your writing?”

  • Ralph Ellison:
    • “Symbolism arises out of action and functions best in fiction when it does so. Once a writer is conscious of the implicit symbolisms which arise in the course of a narrative, he may take advantage of them and manipulate them consciously as a further resource of his art. Symbols which are imposed upon fiction from the outside tend to leave the reader dissatisfied by making him aware that something extraneous has been added.”

Winter Lies Ahead

Spring has gone in the meadow
spring has gone in the flowers
spring has gone in the trees
and winter is coming

It is fall
with leaves to wrestle
and sticks to fall
for spring has gone

And there are many things to pick
to harvest the apple trees in the orchard
to harvest the paint berries
to harvest the vines
so there are many things that must come to pass

There are many things to end
many things to fall
winter lies ahead.

– by Maren

1984 or A Brave New World

The future according to Orwell vs. Huxley. Image from world-shaker.tumblr.com.

World-shaker tries to draw the modern parallels to 1984 and Brave New World in graphic form.

Orwell’s (1948) distopian view of the future in 1984, warned against the government developing the ability to exert constant, repressive monitoring of everyone, controlling the means of communication and, perhaps more importantly, the use of language. Huxley’s (1932) Brave New World, on the other hand, saw a mass media using your apparent predilection for trivialities to distract you from the important things. These two books are staples of secondary school literature, and it’s easy to see modern parallels; “kinetic military action” is currently my favorite Orwellian term.

Unfortunately, drawing modern parallels to historic literature is fraught with difficulty because it’s so easy: the human brain is predisposed to seeing patterns. World-shaker’s attempt is interesting, but flawed. One of his commenter points out that he compares the entertainment website TMZ to Time.com’s news site, which only gets half as many visitors. However, the New York Times’ site gets three times as many visits as TMZ so perhaps he’s fudging the statistics a little to show the trend toward frivolous media.

There are other examples, but the graphic makes does provide a basis for an interesting conversation. The most interesting aspect is that it shows the U.S.A trending more toward Huxley, while repressive Middle-Eastern regimes seem to be trying to make Orwell’s vision more of a reality.

Discovering the Discworld: Where to Start With Terry Pratchett

Rowan Kaiser asserts that Mort‘s the best place to start to discover the wonderful novels of Terry Pratchett.

the Discworld books combine silliness, satire, philosophy, and strong characterization to create a unique, often wonderful tone that’s more than capable of supporting a series with so many installments. But the number of installments can seem overwhelming, especially given that while the books have standalone narratives, they also have consistent sets of characters who develop over the course of the series, leading to an apparently complicated web of a few different, occasionally overlapping series-within-a-series.

–Kaiser (2011): Gateways To Geekery: Terry Pratchett novels in The Onion’s A.V. Club.

My recommendation would be one of her runner-up gateways — either Guards! Guards! or Wyrd Sisters — but she makes good points. Her third runner-up, Small Gods, which is one of the stand-alone novels is one of my favorites, and was my first Pratchett book. And it got me hooked.

Pratchett’s work is intelligent fantasy, in that it’s a lot like the hard science fiction I prefer. It sets up the rules of its universe and then follows them to their logical conclusions, no matter how absurd.

I often wonder how these books would appeal to adolescents since there’s a distinct possibility that much of the quite enjoyable satire would pass over their heads. The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents won the Carnegie Medal for children/young adults, but while it retains Pratchett’s characteristic style and humor, it was written for a younger demographic, unlike most of his other books. I did get one student to read Small Gods, and her response, with a grimace was, “It made me think“.