Comma preferences, take II

Subject: Comma preferences, take II
From: "Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>
To: "Techwr-L (E-mail)" <TECHWR-L -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 16:20:55 -0400

Guru Kamath, referring to Carolyn Rude's opinion "even though we have a
tendency to want to insert commas where we pause or 'breathe' while reading
a sentence, punctuation is logical--not biological!" in her book _Technical
Editing_, observes: <<I really love the biological bit and had a hearty
laugh. I thought this comma for a pause movement was Indian. We have this
"breathing rule" where we put a comma where we pause to breathe! I am so
glad to note that this condition is universal!>>

Yes and no. Each of us pauses to breathe in a different place, and I suspect
there may be cultural differences. But it's interesting to speculate that
sentence length is culturally dependent on lung capacity. <g>

<<I was therefore surprised when one of the best contributors to this list
(Geof Hart) defended this thumb rule.>>

Flattery will get you lots of bonus points, unless you misspell my name. <g>
But in this case, my emphasis was not on where you pause to breathe, but
rather on where you'd logically catch your "mental breath", which is a very
different thing. Commas mark off the main clauses of a sentence because
that's where readers pause to figure out what's just been said (e.g., to
provide the context for the rest of the sentence), not because of the rules
of grammar. And that's the significant techwhirler tie-in: commas serve as
your clue that you've reached the end of a clause and can now pause to
figure out what it means before proceeding with the rest of the sentence.
(Just as periods indicate the end of a complete sentence.) Try deleting
commas from sentences that contain a long introductory clause and you'll
still be able to read the sentence, but if you pay attention to your thought
process, you'll find yourself working harder to establish where the
introductory clauses end.

Emphasizing the role of grammar in defining punctuation places the cart
before the horse: grammar exists to describe why we write the way we do and
teach new writers the patterns of writing that have been proven effective
(or at least that we've all agreed to follow). It does not explain why we
write the way we do, but rather describes it.

<<By the way, does anyone know the origin of this, er, biological "thumb
rule" or what I regard as a "myth" or an "old rule"?>>

It's a rule that comes from _creative_ writing, which in turn inherited the
practice from oral storytelling. Many of the best writers write in such a
manner that you can hear the words in the silence of your head just as if
the author were reading the story aloud to you. (C.S. Lewis comes to mind,
since I'm just reading Narnia to my kids.) Obviously, if you're writing
something that's intended to be read aloud, using commas to indicate "pause
here to breathe" makes perfect sense. It also establishes a natural,
familiar rhythm. In the context of technical writing, that kind of cue isn't
necessary (nobody would read a software manual aloud to their children,
other than in a desperate effort to put them to sleep), and I suspect that
this is what Caroline Rude was trying to say in her statement.

--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

"Technical writing... requires understanding the audience, understanding
what activities the user wants to accomplish, and translating the often
idiosyncratic and unplanned design into something that appears to make
sense."--Donald Norman, The Invisible Computer




Previous by Author: RE. Are my docs un-useful?
Next by Author: Copying Word files into one huge honkin' Word doc?
Previous by Thread: RE: Query?? (learning RoboHelp)
Next by Thread: On-line HELP!


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads