I would only add to Johanna's informative comments that in trying to encourage students to go easy on the commas, I sometimes ask them to look at punctuation from a reader's point of view. You might ask your students, when _they_ read, what do commas mean to them? They may mention pauses, but not all pauses get commas and vice-versa (assuming it makes sense to say that one pauses while reading silently in the first place). They may finally say, if you're lucky, something about a break or division that sets off a section of a sentence, that without a comma, a part of a sentence runs into another part and may be confusing. This kind of exercise doesn't do the full job, especially with commas, but I think it is always helpful to have students try to see a writing issue from the reader's side. Mina Shaughnessy compared punctuation to traffic signs; they tell the reader where they are headed and how the road is about to change. I always liked the comparison. Brock -----Original Message----- From: Johanna Rubba [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2000 2:46 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Grammar Questions [log in to unmask] wrote: > > Would you please let me know if you think the following are punctuated > correctly. > > 1. We went shopping in Memphis last week and bought several things for our > new home. > > (Note that there is no comma because there are not two independent clauses; > however, my students tend to put a comma before *and* whether the sentence > is compound or complex). Correct. > > 2. While driving to work this morning, I stopped to buy gasoline. > > 3. I stopped to buy gasoline while driving to work this morning. > > (is it *generally* correct that a dependent clause at the beginning of the > sentence is followed by a comma, but a dependent clause at the end of the > sentence is NOT preceded by a comma?) Both are correct. And the 'rule of thumb' you cite is common advice. > > 4. Since the programmers will be here soon, we are setting up the > computers; and we are hoping to have the network online before noon. > > (Is it correct to use a semicolon before *and* since a comma is already used > elsewhere in the sentence?) My old Warriner's says your usage is ok; an equally-old Harbrace college handbook also lists this as an exception to the rule to avoid using ; before coordinating conjunctions. St. Martins' 1997 'The Everyday Writer' agrees. It looks funny to me, though. I would just put a period there and eliminate the 'and'. But this is apparently my stylistic preference. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Johanna Rubba Assistant Professor, Linguistics English Department, California Polytechnic State University One Grand Avenue * San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 Tel. (805)-756-2184 * Fax: (805)-756-6374 * Dept. Phone. 756-259 * E-mail: [log in to unmask] * Home page: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/