Do grammar rules make your head ache? Sometimes remembering all the dos and don’ts are enough to make a person crosseyed. But if you want to be read and understood, learning and practicing these rules will become second nature to you and you’ll find yourself zipping right along in your compositions with less agony and more fun.
Think of it this way: mechanics and writers have to have the right tools and know when to use them. Grammar rules are the mechanic’s tools of writing.
Using Commas to Prevent Confusion
We’ve written a lot already about ways in which you can use commas to make the reader your friend. The final technique is using them to prevent confusion.
For instance, to tighten up your writing you may wish to substitute a comma in place of a word or phrase. You can do this without changing the meaning of what you say. In this case, the comma acts as a code signal to tell the reader to provide the missing words mentally.
Example:
To face danger squarely is courageous; to falter and run, cowardly.
Echo words
Words that echo one another in succession may require a comma for ease of reading.
Example:
Everybody we thought would win, won.
Grouping for Clarity
Finally, you might need a comma to prevent readers from grouping words together in ways that don’t fit your intended meaning.
Example:
Children who can, take forty minutes of exercises in the therapy pool.
In this last example you can see that without the comma, the sentence would be incomplete, leaving the reader scratching his head.
This completes our lessons on correct uses of commas. Thanks for hanging in there with me. If you ever have questions, just visit here to refresh yourself.
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