Bill, PLEASE. Find the source of this research. I'm very interested in it. Thanks, Ed V. >>> BILL MURDICK <[log in to unmask]> 11/11/97 10:13am >>> I join this discussion late. I have read research that observes where pauses occur in speech and writing (sorry, this was years ago and I don't have citations; just remeberance). The pause breaks between clauses, interestingly, take place AFTER the subordinating conjuntion, not before, suggesting that the brain can plan only a clause plus a direction (the direction comes from the conjunction) at one time. This constitutes a limitation on consciousness or on the unconscious sentence planning process (I can't remember which). The point is, when a student puts a comma after "but" instead of before, that student is perhaps influenced by this psycholinguistic processing--the student is marking the pause in his/her own processing. --Bill Murdick