Skip Navigational Links
LISTSERV email list manager
LISTSERV - LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU
LISTSERV Menu
Log In
Log In
LISTSERV 17.5 Help - ATEG Archives
LISTSERV Archives
LISTSERV Archives
Search Archives
Search Archives
Register
Register
Log In
Log In

ATEG Archives

June 1995

ATEG@LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU

Menu
LISTSERV Archives LISTSERV Archives
ATEG Home ATEG Home
ATEG June 1995

Log In Log In
Register Register

Subscribe or Unsubscribe Subscribe or Unsubscribe

Search Archives Search Archives
Options: Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Condense Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Sender:
Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:
Re: The use of technology
From:
Larry Beason <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 13 Jun 1995 12:28:33 -0800
Reply-To:
Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar <[log in to unmask]>
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (31 lines)
Here's another way of looking at the use of the comma (vs semicolon)
in the following sentence:
 
*The use of technology is not an addition to
the curriculum, it is a change in how
curriculum is delivered. *
 
Most handbooks (e.g., 11th edition of Harbrace College Handbook, p. 137)
state that contrasted elements in a sentence can be separated by a
comma.  Most of the examples deal with phrases rather than
independent clauses (e.g., Racing is supposed to be a test of skill,
not a dice game with death), but perhaps that same handbook rule
(maxim?) could be evoked in the case of the above sentence (which
I also like better w/ a semicolon).
 
On a related note, I do think that we have to be careful about
excusing too many sentences having a potential error simply because
we say the writer knows the reader won't be confused--at least
in non-fiction writing or academic writing anyhow.  People aren't
bothered by comma errors simply because they hamper meaning; they
are bothered because the writer suffers in terms of credibility
because the writer appears to not know the rules.  (Hmmm, in that
last sentence, could I have also used the comma instead of the
semicolon?)  So while writers are sometimes going to bend the
rules (as in the technology sentence perhaps), that should probably
be the exception rather than the norm.
 
Sorry, I got a little carried away.
 
larry beason

ATOM RSS1 RSS2

LISTSERV.MIAMIOH.EDU CataList Email List Search Powered by LISTSERV