I tell my (college) students that it’s one of those rules
that they need to apply in formal academic writing, but can take less seriously
in other styles. Frankly, I have to admit that I tell them this mainly because
I think other teachers / editors enforce it, not because I think it’s
a particularly valuable rule. One difficulty, though: telling students they
need to use it in formal writing doesn’t work very well if they’ve
never had any exposure to the independent / dependent clause distinction, so
even if we don’t present the rule until late high school or early
college, the groundwork for it needs to be in place already.
I’m not sure of its history, but I suspect it’s
one of those many, many cases that started out as a helpful suggestion about
warding off ambiguity and ended up being a rigid requirement.
Bill Spruiell
Dept. of English
Central Michigan University
From: Assembly for the
Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Michael
Kischner
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2008 2:32 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Commas in compound sentences
I'm wondering how many people are still teaching that
placing a comma before a coordinating conjunction in a compound sentence is the
rule and omitting the comma is the exception? I have been reading through
mostly fiction books for elementary and middle school readers, and in those
books it is certainly the other way around. So in teaching kids at those
levels to use the comma, we are up against most of what they see in print.
Last night, I made up some compound sentences to use in a workshop for
elementary and middle school teachers. I inserted the comma before each
coordinating conjunction. Then I read most of a delightful book, Clarice
Bean Spells Trouble by Lauren Child. It is full of sentences like
this: "Grandad has actually got manners but he doesn't use them that
much anymore and he hasn't let the dog see them, which is why Cement is utterly
mannerless." This morning, when I returned to my carefully made-up
sentences, the commas looked like clutter: "Matthew wanted to play soccer,
but the doctor said he should rest his injured leg."
I know that fiction narrated in the first person is the likeliest place to find
compound sentences without commas. But, though I haven't searched
methodically, I think I have noticed them all over the place, in both fiction
and nonfiction for both younger and older readers.
I wonder whether the comma-before-the-conjunction "rule" has
become one of those pedagogic oversimplifications of reality we sometimes
resort to in order to give learners something clear and secure to grasp until
they're ready for more complexity. Whether such oversimplifications are
effective or justified is a whole other question. What I think I'd prefer
is a better rule.
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