I would suspect the writer is not making any conscious decision at all about syntactic analysis (e.g., deciding that "because" is a coordinator). More likely, he is punctuating on feel, and inserted the comma because he hears a slight pause in his mental reading of the sentence and wants to convey that pause. On 4/13/2011 4:16 AM, T. J. Ray wrote: > 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. >> >> 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/ > > 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/