My basic writers find another acronym useful: LIES, for comma rules. The explanation below is found on ATEG's "Quill and Feather" page for "Clear and Accurate Writing."

From http://www.ateg.org/qf/clear.php:

THE RULES OF COMMAS: Remember LIES:
L: LISTS (The comma before the final item in a series is optional, but a bit more formal.)
I: INTRODUCTIONS: Place a comma before elements that precede the subject.
E: EXTRA INFORMATION: Divide extra (non-essential) information of all kinds with a comma on each side of the extra information.

S: SENTENCES: Divide independent clauses (sentences) with a comma and a conjunction

One of my students this semester coined the acronym FEET, for common forms of evidence:

F  Facts
E  Examples
ET Expert Testimony

Lee Davis
Instructor
English Department
Maryville College

-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of Brett Reynolds
Sent: Thu 5/14/2009 2:33 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: FANBOYS (was Equivalent expressions)
 

On 14-May-09, at 2:00 PM, Assembly for the Teaching of English 
Grammar wrote:

> I don't think "for" in sentence initial position would create a
> sentence fragment in traditional grammar since it is thought of as
> coordinating rather than subordinating. In that sense, it acts like
> "and", "but", "or", "nor", "so", and "yet", which often occur sentence
> initially without being "errors".

Does anybody know where the FANBOYS mnemonic originated.

I blogged about FANBOYS a few years ago here and strangely, it is by 
far the most popular thing I've ever written:
<http://english-jack.blogspot.com/2006/07/myth-of-fanboys.html>

But I've never been able to find who first came up with this 
particular group as the "coordinating conjunctions". The earliest I 
was able to find that included the same list was Writing with a 
Purpose by James McNab McCrimmon (1974), where he asserts, "the 
coordinating conjunctions are and, but, for, or, nor, yet, so." But 
this doesn't arrange them in the FANBOYS order.

I found a 1953 book by Brown (I've lost the title) which omits so: 
"The co-ordinating conjunctions are and, or, for, but and nor

An Index to English: A Handbook of Current Usage and Style by Porter 
Gale Perrin (1939) says, "he coordinating conjunctions are: and but 
for nor (= and not) or yet".

Composition-Rhetoric by Stratton Brooks & Matietta Hubbard (1905) 
gives the principal coördinate conjunctions as and, but, or, nor, and 
for.

Best,
Brett

-----------------------
Brett Reynolds
English Language Centre
Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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