Tag: grammar

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.

Spell check

I have a spelling checker,
It came with my PC.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot sea.

– From “Spellchecker Poem” Zar (1994)

Do grammar and spell check actually help students learn? While it is Montessori-like in principle, making writing more like a self-correcting work, it removes much of the burden of correcting mistakes from the student because they are not forced to identify errors as the software makes suggestions for them.

In addition, grammar and spell checkers in particular, are not especially sensitive to context. The “Spellchecker Poem” (Zar, 1994; Hensel, 2008) passes through a spell checker without comment despite the obvious errors. While grammar checkers are getting better, accurately assessing context is a difficult challenge and fail when a person is trying to intentionally break the rules of grammar, which distracts the writer from their true intentions. Auto-correct functions can also be an incredible pain.

Spell and grammar check functions might work better if they just identified errors but not give students suggestions for corrections.

Of course, in writing this I am using spell check for almost every other word. They are an essential part of electronic writing and inseparable from computer use today. They are ubiquitous in academia and the workplace. Indeed it can be argued that their proper usage is a necessary skill to learn, although to most effectively use checkers you may very well need to know the rules of grammar that the checkers prevent students from learning.

I need to do a bit more research on the subject since I’m pretty sure I’m not the first to address this dilemma. I would really appreciate any suggestions about where to find publications about the topic (my Google-fu is weak with respect to this topic for some reason).

It would also probably be useful to create a lesson specifically dealing with the use of grammar and spell checking, probably using the “Spellchecker Poem“. My students do most of their writing electronically, either on the wiki or using word processing software so this is a topic I need to clarify my own thoughts on soon.