Sophie,
I agree, that there needs to be clarity on what the student meant. As a tutor there is always a chance for interchange. The student's first sentence seems to contradict your interpretation. I think the meaning is something like:
'With all these people I have at least one thing in common, whether it be a specific characteristic like hair or eye color, or whether it be something very general like disliking or liking the same people.'
The enumeration of examples seems to be there to give substance to the "always" that is coming up in the main clause of the whole sequence.
'It doesn't matter what it is. We will always have something in common to talk
about.'
This pseudo-cleft sentence does need a to be a separate statement. I think this is British as well as American usage.
'I think it does not matter just when I came to Venice.' ¯ William Dean Howells
We can think of this sentence as a clause of justification, where the author gives us the reasons for being able to make the statement coming up. Like the phrase 'no matter'. Yet even then the author often punctuates it a sentence. So I take back what I said about the phrase justifying the comma.
'No matter just at this moment, what he said.' ¯ Mary Jane Holmes
Bruce
>>> [log in to unmask] 06/28/01 09:09AM >>>
True, Bruce. But did the student mean to say:
`No matter what it is, we will always have something in common to talk
about'?
Given the context Ed had it in, this student might well have meant something
like:
`Even though we have nothing in common, we will always have something to
talk about'.
(I.e.: `What sense are we making' before `How do we punctuate it?' Surely!)
Sophie
----- Original Message -----
From: Bruce Despain <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2001 12:22 AM
Subject: Re: A comma-splice?
As a tutor I can usually spend more time with the student. I would suggest
that he reduce the first sentence to a phrase and put the "in common" where
it belongs, in the main clause, thus:
No matter what it is, we will always have something in common to talk about.
Bruce
>>> [log in to unmask] 06/28/01 03:43AM >>>
I'd appreciate your comments about the last sentence in the following.
In particular, I would like to know if you consider it a comma-splice,
and, if so, what you would do about it (if anything) in a student's
writing?
With all these people I have at least one thing in common, either hair
or eye color, or even disliking or liking the same people. It doesn't
matter what we have in common, we will always have something to talk
about.
Thanks,
Ed V.
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