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/