Some more food for thought from englishforums.com - http://www.englishforums.com/English/CommaBeforeBecause/dznck/post.htm
Here's an example from Fowler's Modern English Usage:
I know he committed suicide, because his wife told me.
In this example, the comma lets readers know that I heard about the suicide from the wife. Without the comma, one might believe that the reason that the man decided to committ suicide was because his wife told me something. You may also find a comma before because if the adverbial clause that follows is parenthetical. Here's another example from Fowler's:
He’d have to watch his step…not to make a hash of things, because of over-anxiety.
I might write it without the comma, but I suppose the comma helps illustrate that the over-anxiety is more of an afterthought and not the driving force. However, I'm a bit confused myself--
Question: does because of perform a different role than just plain because? That is, I've seen it referred to as a preposition instead of subordinating conjunction. Could this be part of the reason there's a comma before the because? And what about when because begins a sentence? I've read that most introductory adverbial dependent clauses (i.e., clauses that answer the why question--because clauses) should not have a comma after the initial phrase, but Fowler's provides this sentence as a legitimate example of because: Because of the deterioration of the sugar in the blood it was decided, after consultation, to carry out an exchange blood transfusion.
Why?
-Andrew
Geoff Layton
> Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2011 09:43:45 -0500
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Punctuation Question
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> Martha's _Rhetorical Grammar_ offers a solution here. She points out that a comma places focus on the word in front of it (in speech, "the pause," the slight raise in pitch and accent). In this case it preserves some focus for the end of the main clause, which would receive end forcus if the because clause was moved to the front of the sentence. I always enjoyed telling my students that the comma between a main clause and a subordinate one following it was optional -- trust your ear -- it's a rhetorical choice.
>
> Dave Sawyer
> Dept. of English (Retired)
> ________________________________________
> From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Karl Hagen [[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 8:35 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Punctuation Question
>
> 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.
> >>
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