Traditional lists of coordinating conjunctions included "for" (hence the "F" in the acronym "FANBOYS" for remembering the list of coordinating conjunctions); but it seems to me that the use of "for" as a coordinating conjunction in English has largely been succeeded by the use of "because."
 
I find I'm not sure here what the distinction is between a coordinating conjunction and a subordinating conjunction. Help?
 
Dr. Seth Katz 
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Bradley University

________________________________

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of T. J. Ray
Sent: Wed 4/13/2011 6:16 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Punctuation Question


I believe you're right in thinking he feels this is a coordinate conjunction.  My understanding is that 
"because" clauses are dependent and hence should not be preceded with a comma.  I just
wanted a number of opinions before I bring it to the committee's attention, folks who evidently
don't see a problem with it as no one had marked any of these before I saw the MSS.

Thanks for your time.



On Wednesday 04/13/2011 at 5:43 am, "Dixon, Jack" wrote: 

	Focusing on the obvious, I suspect the writer believes that "because" functions as a coordinating conjunction rather than a subordinating. Does the student punctuate most subordinating clauses that follow the independent clause this way, or do he make this mistake with "because" only?
	
	I seem to remember that Martha Kolln in _Rhetorical Grammar_ addresses the few instances when terminal subord. clauses are set off with commas. 
	
	________________________________________
	From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of T. J. Ray [[log in to unmask]]
	Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2011 8:10 PM
	To: [log in to unmask]
	Subject: Punctuation Question
	
	I have a doctoral student who produces sentences like the following:
	
	"This quatrain cannot be read in isolation at all, because the syntax
	is
	inherent and incomplete on its own."
	
	My question is not a search for whatever he meant to say but is about
	his punctuation: the comma. Comments are welcome.
	
	T. J.
	
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