Goals For Today Characterize the comma and its role in sentences View and discuss five reliable rules for comma placement If there is time well practice identifying where and why to use commas in an exercise ID: 717121
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Slide1
The Comma:
Five
Rules to Write BySlide2
Goals For Today
Characterize the comma and its role in sentences
View and discuss five reliable rules for comma placement
If there is time, we’ll practice identifying where and why to use commas in an exercise Slide3
The Comma: The Traffic Cop
The comma regulates the flow of phrases and clauses in a sentence.Slide4
Five Main Comma Rules
–A Preview—Slide5
1) After
sentence
introductions
:
Intro,
SV.
SV; TE, SV.Slide6
2) Between clauses:
SV, {FANBOYS} SV.
SV, DC.
SV, {FANBOYS} SV, DC.Slide7
To insert elements
into clauses:
S, phrase, V.
S, clause, V.Slide8
4) To separate items
in a list:
a
,
b
,
and c
adj
,
adj
nounSlide9
Tags:
I
said, “I quote
.”
“Frankly, my dear,” he
said, “I
quote, too.”Slide10
Let’s Examine the 5 in DetailSlide11
1) Intro, SV.
= Introductory word group,
subject
verb.Slide12
Subject +
Verb = Clause
The
subject
is the
person or thing that does
the action
.
The
verb
=
action.Slide13
Independent Clause
A
clause
has a
subject
and verb
.
An
independent clause
has
enough information
about the subject and verb that
it can stand on its own
and not leave a reader confused.Slide14
Anything before the
subject
of the first independent clause (IC) is the introductory word group.
Introductory Word GroupSlide15
Believing she had plenty of time,
the student put off writing her paper until the night before it was due.
Sentence Introduction ExamplesSlide16
Subsequently,
the student’s essay was poorly organized and undeveloped.
Sentence Introduction ExamplesSlide17
Sentence Introduction Examples
Although her initial
work
was substandard,
the student learned to do better the next time.Slide18
The student drafted her second paper a week before it was due;
as a result,
she had time to revise it before turning it in.
Sentence Introduction ExamplesSlide19
Traffic-cop comma holds back the end of a clause to make way for another independent clause:
IC
,
for/and/nor/but/or/yet/so
IC.
2) C
omma Between
C
lausesSlide20
Comma
Between Clauses
I exist
, for
I cogitate. It sounds
pretentious
, yet
I wrote it anyway.
I could have written something
better
,
but
this is PowerPoint
,
and
the slides don’t have room!Slide21
Keep compound elements together!
No commas in compound predicates: S V and
V.
I ate a sandwich and drank some ginger ale.Slide22
No Commas in Compounds
A good money manager controls expenses and invests surplus dollars to meet future needs (Hacker 288).Slide23
Marie Curie discovered radium and later applied her work on radioactivity to medicine
(Hacker 302
).
No Commas in CompoundsSlide24
I was impressed that he knew how to cook an omelet and that he enjoyed helping others.
No Commas in CompoundsSlide25
She was pleased to note that the band had reunited and that the
former manager
had been fired
.
No Commas in CompoundsSlide26
2) Comma Between Clauses
Clause
,
optional element.
“optional” = nonessential
Nonessential
elements give the reader information, but they are
not
required for
grammatical understanding
.Slide27
Clause
, optional
element.
For school, the children need sturdy backpacks,
which are expensive.
I ran off without my food,
despite
my spending
four hours preparing it the night before.Slide28
Elvis
Presley made music industry history in the 1950s,
his records having sold more than ten million copies
(Hacker 297).
Clause,
optional element.Slide29
Clause, {FANBOYS} clause.
The van was shaped like a toe, and its engine roared like a hippo.Slide30
Clause, {FANBOYS} clause.
My
backpack was
clean and bright orange in January, but
it
was dingy and smelled
bad
by
the end of the quarter.Slide31
3) T
o insert a
phrase into
a
clause
Anything between subject and verb is an insertion. There need to be commas before and after the inserted element.Slide32
Phrase Inserted into Clause
Natural
foods are not always salt free; celery
,
for example
,
contains more
sodium
than most people would imagine
(Hacker 297).Slide33
Phrase Inserted into Clause
Many dark bitter fruits
,
such as blueberries, cranberries, and black cherries
,
have healthful antioxidants
.Slide34
Ed’s
house
, which is located on thirteen acres,
was furnished with bats in
the
rafters and mice in the kitchen
(Hacker 294).
Inserted Adjective Clause:
Slide35
The
helicopter
, with its million-candlepower spotlight illuminating the
area
,
circled above
(Hacker 295).
Prepositional phrases or verbal phrases functioning as adjectives
:Slide36
Darwin’s
most important book
,
On the Origin of Species,
was the result
of
many years of research
(Hacker 295).
Appositives (
nonessential)Slide37
Essential—No Commas
The
song “Vertigo” was blasted
out
of huge amplifiers
(Hacker 295).Slide38
The cake made with coconut
was delicious.
This identifies which cake out of two or more (and it is part of the subject) = essential
The writer’s purpose
can determine
if info
essential
or not
:Slide39
The cake
, made with coconut,
was delicious.
This
adds information about the
only
cake discussed.
=nonessentialSlide40
Commas divide separate items
in
a
series:
Bubbles of air, leaves, ferns, bits of wood, and insects are often found trapped in amber (290).
4)
Items
in a
listSlide41
Separate Items in a List
But . . .
I was served macaroni and cheese, broccoli, and eggs.Slide42
Coordinate Adjectives
He
was a no-good, low-down,
dirty,
rotten
rascal.
If the
adj’s
can switch places without altering the meaning, they are coordinate adjectives.Slide43
No
comma: cumulative adjectives
Three
large gray shapes moved slowly toward us
(Hacker 292
).
(
Three(large(gray shapes)))Slide44
Set
off nouns of direct
address
T
he
words “yes” and “
no”
Interrogative tags
Mild interjections
D
ialogue tags (verbs of saying)
A
fterthoughts
5)
TagsSlide45
Forgive us
, Dr. Atkins,
for having rolls with dinner (Hacker 298).
[direct address]
Yes,
the loan will probably be approved.
[Yes/No tag]
The film was faithful to the book
, wasn’t it? [Interrog.
t
ag]Slide46
Well,
cases like these are difficult to decide
.
[Mild interjection]
I
laughed when
he muttered,
“That’s what she said.”
[dialogue]
The bass weighed twelve pounds,
give or take a few ounces
(Hacker 297
).
[afterthought]Slide47
Dates:
On
May 18, 1980, Mt. St. Helens erupted, turning daylight into dusk
.
No comma for inverted dates: 18 May 2013
No comma for only month + year: May 2013
Other Uses of the
CommaSlide48
John Lennon was born in Liverpool, England, in 1940.
Please send the package to
Greg
Tarvin
at 708 Spring Street, Champaign, Illinois 61820.
Place names,
except
ZIPSlide49
Gregory House, M.D.
Sue Lau, Ph.D.
Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany
Title Following
NameSlide50
3,500
13,500
135,000,000
Numbers
four or more digits
: Slide51
Commas: They’re about the Clauses!
Intro, SV.
SV, {FANBOYS} SV.
S, insertion, V.
Separate Items in Lists
“Tags” tacked onto IC. Slide52
Works Cited
Hacker, Diana.
A Writer’s Reference.
6
th
ed. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008
. Print.