I have a confession to make, I'm 32 years old and I don't know how to use a comma. This is shocking, but true.
It all started 27 years ago when I was in kindergarten.
This became abundantly clear when I was hired for a freelance transcription job. I emailed my first draft of the transcript, and I received a long email back with many corrections. One of the main corrections that was pointed out to me is my overuse of commas. I'm not sure why, but apparently I love commas.
My education has failed me. I went to good schools, some of them were gifted and talented programs even, I am a graduate of NYU, but a comma defies me.
However, I'm done living in the past. It's time to move on with my grammatical life.
I'm come to the realization that I need to seek help for this problem. I need a comma intervention. Can somebody please tell me how to use commas correctly? Thanks.
I teach comma usage, so I can help a little. The trickiest and most tricky misusage of the comma is the comma splice, when one separates two independent clauses with a comma instead of the proper punctuation (a period or semicolon or comma + conjunction). For example: "I have a confession to make. I'm 32 years old, and I don't know how to use a comma." Or "I have a confession to make: I'm 32 years old, and I don't know how to use a comma." (In this case, the colon works because the second clause illustrates the first." Or even "I have a confession to make; I'm 32 years old, and I don't know how to use a comma." Otherwise, I think you did a pretty good job in this post! :)
ReplyDeleteWait, so it is this usage incorrect? "I have a confession to make, I'm 32 years old and I don't know how to use a comma. This is shocking, but true."
ReplyDelete