the comma for the millennial learners

By

Mubarak Abdessalami

“This morning I took out a comma and this afternoon I put it back in again.” Oscar Wild

The Comma for the Millennial Learners - Abdessalami

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Dedication

To You


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“Punctuation marks are the

main means of showing the

grammatical organisation of

what you write. Hide the

punctuation and you hide the

grammatical structure. And if

you hide the grammatical

structure, you hide the

meaning of what you are trying

to say.”

D. Crystal


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 5

Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………….… 6

The power of punctuation…………………………………………………………………………… 7

Teaching the Comma …………………….……………………………………………….….………… 8

FANBOYS enjoy fresh commas ………………………………………………………… 9

The comma can save souls ……………………………………………………….………..…… 10

The serial comma makes lists grow longer ………………………………………….. 11

The gapping Comma is economical ……………………………………………………………. 13

One comma can make the difference …………………………………………………….. 14

When the comma generates misinterpretation …………………………….……. 18

The Listing comma again ………………………………………………………………….… 19

Parenthetical Commas …………………………………………………………………….…… 20

Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 22

Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………….…………………….…. 23

KEYWORDS

Writing, punctuation, marks, commas, semi-colons, period, full-stop, comma splices, Run-on-sentences, clauses, conjunctions, coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions, non-restrictive clauses, appositives,


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Abstract “I learned, the comma, this is, a, comma (,) a period, with, a tail,”

Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon

The comma, in students’ writings, is really disturbing when it is not there, and it is also distressing when it is there. In both cases, the students’ ideas are not clear and almost scribbled. We don’t know where the clauses start and where they end. We cannot say dependent from independent clauses. For teachers, this is extremely frustrating. A piece of writing void of proper punctuation usage is a hysterical message similar to wizards’ incantations. I may seem exaggerating here, but teachers of English know I’m not. They have certainly experienced proof-reading and correcting lots of “crazy” writings.

Millennial students cannot just help it. They are technologically oriented; therefore, they are mostly visual learners. I am confident there is no sophisticated approach to teaching digital learners, punctuation. All the approaches must rely greatly on rules; which these multitasking students don’t tolerate. Do you think they could memorize “stuff” like,

How many punctuation marks there are. What the roles of commas and semicolons are. Where the comma is compulsory. The Apostrophe is a punctuation mark, too. Not to use commas between cumulative adjectives. There are four specific uses for a comma. There are more than 20 rules of commas. And so on

The students find this incongruous, tiring, boring, too-much demanding, disconcerting and really archaic. Whenever you intend to teach them the punctuation rules, they suddenly show repugnance, and they simply don’t feel like learning at all. At the least, they would accept the recommendation which says, “When in doubt leave the comma out.” This is justifiable: As digital natives, they have nothing to do with memorizing rules; they are comfortable with visual literacy because they belong to digital multimodal composing environments.

These “Generation Y” learners prefer not to express their ideas in print-texts but rather in audio, video, and other artistic performances. They are keen on using sound and visual effect, colour, contrast, animation, shots, movie-making software, transitions, emoticons, smileys and other forms of expression. These are the only punctuation features they can accept and deal with willingly. Do you think they would care about the placement of a comma in a text they don’t even recognize as a viable vehicle of thoughts and ideas, except for texting and messaging. Still, this doesn’t mean they are to be exempt from using punctuation. On the contrary, it means simply that we need to invite them to engage in the punctuation game to tolerate it.


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Introduction

This paper will highlight the attempt to entice, encourage and motivate the millennial students to think differently vis-à-vis the “boring” and somehow very complicated punctuation rules. As they are mad about video games, they certainly like being challenged; so, this work on the comma intends to demonstrate how teachers can draw their students to the arena of punctuation through challenging them on the right use of the comma. It is true that this is a bit winding as approach; but it is the lingo the Nintendo students understand best. Isn’t it advisable to engage them through “Problem Based Learning” and “Case Based Learning”, among others? There’s a little of that in it.

Despite the digital versatile rules they are trying to impose on communication styles, the students should bear in mind that there is no such a thing like writing without punctuation, in the standardized sense of the word. When it comes to writing, the punctuation marks are the supports of cohesion, coherence and above all meaning. Punctuation for writing is similar to pegs for a tent. Imagine a tent without pegs; such is writing without punctuation. Punctuation is the backbone of the writing body; without it meaning simply collapses. Despite all this, punctuation is the least considered by most students. While writing or editing, they seem to have other fish to fry, so to speak. Now! Making them aware of the grave error they make by discarding punctuation from their priorities while editing their writings, is to be dealt with in a very stimulating way; not by just warning them of the risks they may face when ignoring it. They often use periods, colons and question and exclamation marks but randomly. Let alone the semi-colons and commas.

The comma is the punctuation mark the most deliberately ignored and disregarded by most students nowadays. They consider it optional because they believe it is mainly used to mark a pause; whereas it is a real ordeal even for professional writers. Writers know a lot about its critical effect on meaning and they are aware of its impact on their whole product. Their editors have the same concern or even more. In fact, the comma is an indispensable constituent of professional writings. When most modernist writers see that the comma is so imposing that it becomes a frightening scrounger, they merely get rid of it and choose to rely greatly on “the stream of consciousness technique” (*) as an outlet. Well, I cannot be resolute about this, but it is just an illustration to intensify the burden, writers endure when writing. I think they’d better read, Virginia wolf, William Faulkner and O’Connor to make sure punctuation is not to be underestimated!!! This is a little ironical! No?

The misuse of punctuation marks in general and commas in particular damage the meaning badly; this is incontestable. Notwithstanding the fact that the students are always warned about the crucial role of these “mechanics”, they seldom give them importance. They cannot make the difference between the functions of the comma, the colon, the semi-colon or the period in a piece of writing. They take them all on equal footing. And even if they use them, they don’t know much about their exact placements. ______________________________________________________________________________________

(1) James, William; Principles of Psychology (1890), Chapter IX


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The power of punctuation first

The declining standards of using punctuation at schools is due to the fact that this digital generation reads less and writes lesser, in the academic sense of the word. How do we expect someone who uses initials, abbreviations, LOL, and coined slang words in their daily communication to care about formal writing and its “stupid” punctuation? However, I’m confident it is never too late to put things back on an even keel, and get them back to normality by inciting them to write just like inviting them to participate in a game. To show them the power of punctuation in transmitting fully understandable messages, you needn’t lecture or warn, but challenge. There are several ways to do so.

To illustrate this, allow me to start with the common story of the college teacher who wrote this sentence on the board for the students to add punctuation to make it meaningful in a sense or another. Most of today students have come across it on the internet, so they know what it is all about, and they’ll certainly feel concerned,

A woman without her man is useless

The male students insert commas this way, A woman, without her man, is useless.

Whereas the girls understand it this way, A woman: without her, man is useless.

This shows the power of punctuation and especially that of the comma to create or alter meaning in the same statement.

Such appealing exercises make the students aware of the power of punctuation and make them curiously think about reconsidering their position about the use of punctuation in their compositions. I guess this technique is more efficacious than just dictating rules; which are not stable themselves. This technique is a little constructive for different learning styles and it is expected to clear up the confusion the old teaching methods used to engender.

When the learners feel challenged, they will deliberately go and look for rules to understand quite well if the punctuation marks they have chosen for a given statement fit or not. That is much more rewarding than spoon-feeding them with the rules. They will reject them, for sure. It is not wise to use old methods to teach digital learners when and how to use punctuation in writing. They would feel outlandish in your classroom, and they may describe it as “Jurassic Park”. That’s why I’m insisting on the agility in introducing them to the accuracy of punctuation use; which require solid background knowledge. Let them make the effort to rebuild their basic knowledge about the matter and try to find out how imperative it is to own necessary tools to fix problems and most of the problems are generally unpredictable. Once they get familiar with the new teaching-learning “game”, they‘d be willing to help educate themselves without constraints or complaining.


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Teaching the Comma

It is generally acknowledged, among educators, that there are different types of learning, but teaching is the same. Subsequently, many factors are to be taken into account in a teaching-learning situation where the students’ different intelligences and different learning styles have a lot to do with successful classes. When the group of students you are teaching is heterogeneous, how could it be possible to teach punctuation to multi-tasking, multi-intelligent with multi-learning style learners? It’s really tough. Some students are visual learners; some others are auditory; whereas others are tactile or kinaesthetic learners.

On this basis, to lecture about or to dictate when and how the comma should be used in writing is indigestible and really tough for generation Y to retain. As they are multitasking, their concentration and retention abilities are low. Therefore, old methods don’t fit together with their learning styles any more. They rather long for approaches which go beyond the necessity to commit to memory in order to do a task; hence, the urgent need to find methods to substitute memorizing for putting rules into practice in a very expedient and pragmatic way. It is not always successful with everybody owing to the diversity of the learning styles students use to grasp new information and process it. They have different personal idiosyncrasies, as a result.

The millennial students are used to run-on-sentences because they imagine the comma is just an elective mark, whereas it is very crucial for establishing meaning. When the students are urged to value the role of the comma in writing to make their essays legible, they just spread it throughout their compositions as arranged so as to show that they have taken the advice seriously. As a matter of fact, they are not aware that the intruded, omitted or misplaced comma almost always creates confusion, discomposure and disconcertion for the reader, and eventually mess up good writings. Therefore, the use of the comma is really an intricate task in writing for most students. I’d even admit that the comma is a real nightmare for us all.

When these digital learners consciously realize that nobody can recuperate a meaning lost due to the violation of the comma rule, they will certainly rethink the whole matter over again. Therefore, the question, the students normally should answer is, “what are the rules you should not violate about the comma?” This actually is the toughest of all assignments the students would prefer to sacrifice their iPhones for not doing it. I believe these students need better approaches to be taught the importance of punctuation in general and the power of the comma in particular.

In this section, I do not actually intend to give rules about how and when to use the comma correctly; though I think I will be obliged to point to that from time to time. My first concern, however, is to show how students could be attracted and engaged into learning about the comma in a very sophisticated challenging and funny game-like quizzes. I have chosen to talk about situations where the misplacement of commas prompts ambiguity or confusion. I bet if the students are introduced to the punctuation marks through such funny and stimulating exercises, they will keenly value,


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respect and abide by the rules; and eventually they will become more concerned and more careful when they have to use them. They may even seek for perfection.

Nevertheless; the approach is not totally ripe yet and its application forms are not exhaustive anyway. This paper is just a broad initiation to how it could be handled. These few ideas and blueprints need elaboration and more inventiveness from colleagues to enrich it by adding to it, filling any possible lacunas to fit different types of classes and different levels of learners. FANBOYS enjoy fresh commas

Run-on-sentences as well as comma splices generate lots of grammatical errors, and this happens when the students join two or more sentences without using any punctuation marks at all, or by using a comma to separate independent clauses. This is the culmination problem for most students while writing. The comma is mostly what they need if they knew how to provide it, but they don’t like to know. Consequently, the meaning is blurring and sometimes even undetectable. This is said, a full stop or a semi-colon could, at least, do the job perfectly well. For the learners to surmount such flaws in writing, the teacher may offer them guidance by just putting on the board two completed sentences without any punctuation marks and make students brainstorm about them like this:

He had enough money he didn’t buy the laptop.

There are many ways the students can manage to redress the error, either by

1. Using a period to separate the two sentences. 2. Using a semi-colon to mend the comma splice obstruction. 3. Using the comma to splice the sentences * 4. Calling on one of the FANBOYS to help fix the problem. 5. Using a subordinating connector.

Therefore, the possibilities suggested are in the same order,

1) He had enough money. He didn’t buy the laptop. 2) He had enough money; he didn’t buy the laptop.

3) He had enough money, he didn’t buy the laptop.* 4. a) He had enough money, but he didn’t buy the laptop. 4. b) He had enough money, yet he didn’t buy the laptop.

5. Although he had enough money, he didn’t buy the laptop.

The “FANBOYS” are the coordinating conjunctions the most known qualified “squad” able to correct comma splices, break the stiffness of compound sentences, and reduce the ambiguity of fused sentences.

FANBOYS refer to “for”, “and”, “nor”, “but”, “or”, “yet”, and “so”.


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That would be enough as a start. We shouldn’t burden the students with more details as to talk about the possibility to use more subordinating connectors like “however”, “nevertheless” etc as these require more complicated punctuation issues: Semi-colons and commas before and after the subordinating conjunction when in middle position. That’s exactly what we are trying to avoid by making recourse to the game-like lessons or scenarios. The comma can save souls

Absolutely!

1. Consider the following sentence,

When the dog was eating the cat was in the kennel.

Without commas, the sentence seems to talk about cannibalism. The meaning of the sentence is not quite clear, and it is subject to various understandings.

a. Was the dog eating the cat? b. Was the dog eating the cat in the kennel? c. Was the dog eating the cat when the latter was in the kennel? d. Was the dog eating something else but not the cat?

To dispel the fog of ambiguity here, we need a magic stroke from the comma to spare the cat. For an editor or a proof-reader, the decision about the use of the comma here is a tough task, we must admit it. We cannot tell if the writer wants to say,

1. When the dog was eating the cat, [it] was in the kennel. 2. When the dog was eating, the cat was in the kennel.

I think you’d agree that number 2 is the most plausible. The comma is pleading the dog innocent from eating the cat. The dog was eating something else; whereas the cat was in the kennel.

In other words, the cat was in the kennel while the dog was eating. The latter didn’t even notice that the cat had invaded his home; otherwise - maybe - he would have eaten him; who knows?!! But thanks to the comma, the cat is safe and the dog is exonerated.

2. Look at this illustrious sentence, almost everybody has heard about,

Let’s eat Grandpa!

I’d like you to see if we could save Grandpa from being devoured. Normally, the only hope for him, once again, is the comma. Otherwise, it will be too late for him.


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We can use the comma to save Grandpa’s soul if we place it in the right location in the statement. This is a challenge for the students,

Let’s eat, Grandpa!

Not only does the comma save Grandpa from being eaten, but it invites him to eat as well. That’s one of the roles that punctuation can play in redressing meaning. Still this role is what the students indifferently overlook and miss. If they knew about it, they would edit their writings as many times as it takes just for the sake of the “noble” role this amazing punctuation mark plays. The serial comma makes lists grow longer

A. Guess what would be their reaction if the students are asked to use the comma appropriately for this sentence to show exactly how many people Peter is inviting for dinner tonight.

Peter is inviting his uncle John Smith Nadia and Rebecca.

It is only the Oxford comma which can solve this puzzle. It can make them three people and it can make them more, depending on the positions you have chosen for it. a. Peter is inviting his uncle John Smith, Nadia and Rebecca.

Here three people are being invited:

1. Peter’s uncle ( whose name is John Smith) 2. Nadia 3. Rebecca

b. Peter is inviting his uncle John, Smith, Nadia and Rebecca.

Here, they become four people:

1. Peter’s uncle (whose name is John) 2. Smith 3. Nadia 4. Rebecca

c. Peter is inviting his uncle, John Smith, Nadia and Rebecca.

Here again, they are four people but with some modifications in guests:

1. Peter’s uncle (whose name this time is not mentioned) 2. John Smith (with first and last names) 3. Nadia 4. Rebecca


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d. Peter is inviting his uncle, John, Smith, Nadia and Rebecca.

But here the number grows to become five: 1. Peter’s uncle 2. John 3. Smith 4. Nadia 5. Rebecca

B. With the following construction, the teacher can make students think about how many people went to school

After we left Nadia Leila and I went to school.

It is actually hard to say as far as the comma is not there. So let’s try it this way first.

After we left Nadia, Leila and I went to school.

In this case, only the two of us went to school, Leila and I. This is because Nadia didn’t want to go with us; so, we left without her. Now, if we want Nadia to go to school with us, it’s simple: we should insert the comma this way,

After we left, Nadia, Leila and I went to school.

Here, all three of us left for school. I bet the students would find such exercises motivating and stimulating. C. Likewise, the following sentence needs commas to decide about the items Henry bought from the shop.

Henry bought a cell phone battery and a cable.

Thanks to the comma, we will immediately know how many items Henry purchased from the shop

a. Henry bought a cell phone, battery and a cable.

Henry bought three items 1. A cell phone 2. Battery 3. A cable

b. Henry bought a cell phone battery and a cable.

Whereas here he bought only two 1. A cell phone battery 2. A cable


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Fortunately, the abstention of the comma here saves Henry. He had already had a mobile phone, or else he would have paid a heavy bill.

The benefit from this sort of exercises is twofold, it not only teaches the students how to make lists using commas, but it also gets them to know more of the two separate word compound nouns. Try it with,

“Fish tanks” or fish and tanks. “Water tanks” or water and tanks “milk chocolate” or milk and chocolate “tea bags” or tea and bags “sardine cans” or sardine and cans and so on

It’s funny and instructive. This sort of games surely will encourage the majority of students to search for more interesting tricks; they excel at that. The Gapping Comma is economical

To draw the students’ attention to the redundant boring styles in writing, just make them contemplate sentences like the following, and let them see what is wrong. Then allow them plenty of time to try to find a way to get rid of the superfluous words to avoid useless repetitions. Task 1: Rectify the following sentence using the comma.

Some students prefer to revise History; other students prefer to revise philosophy.

They will immediately notice that some words are repeated unnecessarily. When they identify them, they should try to find out how a comma could solve the problem. The phrase “some students prefer to revise” has to be taken away and replaced by a gapping comma. They may luckily reach this level of performance,

Some students prefer to revise History; others, philosophy.

This type of comma is really economical. It omits and replaces the unnecessary words. The mastery and control of such structural troubles paves the way to professionalism in writing. This sort of exercises will make the students practically aware of the importance of the comma for avoiding redundancy in their writings. Here is another challenging exercise:

The boys wanted to play video games; the girls wanted to play chess.

The students will get used to this quickly, and will enjoy being challenged on this sort of speech improving tasks. Omitting “wanted to play” is grammatically feasible if there is a comma to give a hand and replace the whole phrase as in.


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The boys wanted to play video games; the girls, chess.

Teachers needn’t introduce the punctuation marks in general and the types of commas through definitions and rules. The digital learners won’t actually tolerate this method of teaching; on the contrary, they need to be constructivists and problem solvers.

Task 2: What does the comma replace in the following sentence?

Those who can help the old farmer pull the tractor out of the pool may leave now; those who cannot, stay.

Of course, it replaces “help the old man pull the tractor out of the pool”. The comma saves time and space and protects meaning. There are many other appealing practices which the teacher could use to entice the students into accepting to participate in the game of taming the rigid rules of the comma usage gladly.

The millennial students would be disposed to take part in their own teaching via cooperative and active learning. Don’t tell them, just show them and keep aloof. Let them brainstorm and do the task the way they deem instructive and constructive. The point is for the students to be able to write to be read. I mean to write, not “to text” or “to message”. One comma can make the difference

Very so often, commas are helpful to control and make it explicit the exact meaning you want to convey. Without a comma, the following sentence generates confusion.

I. What is the difference, if there is any, between,

1. Funny dog 2. Funny, dog

Obviously the apparent difference is the existence of the comma in sentence 2: whereas the first is void of comma. Does that make any difference? Of course it does.

Number 1 is a phrase made of the adjective “funny” describing the “dog”. The dog is funny, so it is a “funny doggy”.

As for number 2, the version is different. Here the master of the dog is talking to his dog after the latter has performed something funny. He tells it that what it did is funny. It could be sarcastic, but in general it is a statement which is a sort of a comment on a given act from the dog. “It is funny what you did, doggy!” That’s what the statement actually says. II. Now have a look at the following statement and try to see who is actually stupid?


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When you look stupid people laugh.

1. When you look stupid, people laugh.

The comma placed after “stupid” indicates that there is a cause and effect relationship. The cause is that “you look stupid”, and the consequence is “people laugh”. There is another way of saying this: “Because you look stupid, people laugh” or “People laugh because you look stupid”; and this is what the comma, in that specific placement in the sentence, makes us understand.

2. When you look, stupid people laugh.

In this sentence, the placement of the comma directly after “look” renders people, who laugh, stupid. You look at people for instance and because of this, only stupid people laugh.

Needless to remind you that the comma is not there just by accident; it has a role to play, and its role is vital for constructing meaning. It is true that it is a tiny mark but its effect on meaning is huge. III. Again, can you tell who is looking for an answer in the following sentence, the teacher or the student?

The teacher pointed to the student seeking an answer

Here, it is the student who requests an answer, but if we edit the sentence by adding a comma like in the following,

The teacher pointed to the student, seeking an answer.

It is the teacher now who is waiting for an answer from the student. IV. By the same token, if we come across a sentence like the next one, can we know how many bikes the sentence is talking about?

Don’t forget to fix the bike I am riding to school.

Because the comma doesn’t appear in the sentence, this means that there is only one bike. The speaker wants his bike repaired: the bike he is using to go to school. However, a comma can immediately make them two bicycles.

Don’t forget to fix the bike, I am riding to school.

The bike I am riding to school right now is not the bike I am urging you to fix. It is the other one with a punctured tyre which I meant. I will not use it. I am using another one to go to school, now. The comma which is used to separate clauses is


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responsible for clarifying the point. We are talking about two bikes not one like in the previous sentence where the comma is intentionally omitted for the sake of meaning. V. Now, ask the students if they could tell who is asking for direction in this sentence, the man or the woman?

The man smiled to the woman asking for direction.

The man smiled to the woman who was asking for direction. It is the woman who was asking for direction, not the man. If we want it to be the man who asked for direction, in this case, we need to place a comma after “the woman”, like this:

The man smiled to the woman, asking for direction.

The man is doing two things simultaneously. While he was asking her for direction, at the same time, he was smiling to her.

VI. In the following sentence, the brothers habitually leave the doors open.

Brothers keep the doors open.

But if we insert a comma after “Brothers”, it is another brother of them who is asking them to leave the doors open.

Brothers, keep the doors open.

VII. Similarly, a student was writing a story and he wanted to say that the little girl hit the man using a straw hat, and he put it like this.

The little girl hit the man, with a straw hat.

Think about it. This sentence doesn’t say what the student meant precisely. What the sentence actually tells is that the little girl hit the man who was wearing a straw hat. No one would understand that the girl hit the man using the straw hat as her “weapon”. This misunderstanding is due to the placement of the comma where it should not be. Consequently, the sentence does not say what the writer wanted it to say. The comma makes a huge difference. To make the readers understand the sentence in the way the writer intended it to mean, the comma should not be there at all, and the meaning is restored,

The little girl hit the man with a straw hat.

The comma generates confusion because it is not evident the sentence with the comma say what the student meant. Unless the comma is omitted to make things clear, the readers would understand that the man, whom the girl hit, was wearing a straw hat. The comma does really make the difference.


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VIII. On the other hand, most signs never use commas. So, they carry funny messages like in,

Slow Children Crossing

The imperative “slow”, which reminds the drivers to slow down because the children are crossing the road, has become an adjective, and they are the children who become slow, physically or mentally. It makes no difference. It’s funny, No! In order to correct the sign to carry the intended message, we need to put a comma directly after “slow”. However, it is not still there.

Slow, Children Crossing

IX. In fact, there are endless numbers of examples where the presence or the absence of the comma makes a lot of difference and may create misunderstanding. Do the following sentences say the same thing?

The boy said his sister is silly. The boy, said his sister, is silly.

Who is actually silly, the boy or his sister? Obviously, the commas have a lot to do with the meaning. In the first sentence, the boy said that his sister is silly. So, it is the sister who is silly. However, in the second sentence, the sister said that her brother is silly. Because of the commas, the boy is the silly one according to the sister’s testimony. Therefore, the commas changed the meaning up side down. They make a great difference.


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When the comma generates misinterpretation

Check the next sentence for the same purpose: How many people did I meet each time? If I fail to use or not to use the comma appropriately, I’d create a sort of confusion for the reader. When I say for instance,

I came across an old friend and a tourist guide.

What do I actually mean?

a) I met an old friend and a tourist guide. (No Comma, one person)

1. The old friend is a tourist guide

b) I met an old friend, and a tourist guide. (Two people)

1. An old friend. 2. A tourist guide (who is another person)

What does all this mean? It simply means that when I deliberately and consciously drop the comma, I want to tell my readers that I met only one person: an old friend of mine who is a tourist guide. But if I want them to understand that I met two people - an old friend and a tourist guide, I need to use the comma obligatory; otherwise the only person I met is an old friend who works as a tourist guide.

The comma here is responsible for the meaning you want your reader to understand. Suppose you meant to inform him that you met with a friend who is actually a tourist guide, but you used the comma, intentionally or unintentionally. The reader will take for granted that you have met two people not one, and this was not your intention. You created the confusion and your readers will understand something completely different from what you want to make them know. So, one has to be careful with the comma; it really affects the meaning, and it generates misinterpretation.

Finally, let me remind you of the famous statement which has become a sort of a joke.

A panda eats, shoots and leaves.

When mis-punctuated, the sentence depicts the Panda as a gangster with a gun who enters restaurants, eats, shoots and leaves. Whereas the sentence should normally be void of commas to show simply that the Panda is an animal who eats shoots and leaves (his favourite types of food). So the sentence must be written this way, and only in this way -with no comma,

A panda eats shoots and leaves.

By the way, I recommend reading an interesting book by Lynne Truss entitled “Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation!”, Where more examples as such are being treated with detailed explanations.


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The Listing comma again

I know your father Tom Anderson Julian Lee Ahmed and Abraham.

Since we have already seen something like this before, I guess, it won’t be hard to envisage all the possibilities about the placement of the commas in the sentence. Well! Can you help me list the people I know?

The maximum is seven people, and the minimum is four. There are more possibilities in between.

a) I know your father, Tom, Anderson, Julian, Lee, Ahmed and Abraham. b) I know your father Tom, Anderson, Julian Lee, Ahmed and Abraham. c) I know your father Tom Anderson, Julian, Lee, Ahmed and Abraham. d) I know your father Tom Anderson, Julian Lee, Ahmed and Abraham.

It’s real fun to ask the students to brag about their crafts in recognizing their abilities on putting up series or lists in the way they perceive them. Someone may venture and invent a highly cultural blend, and puts it this way for instance,

e) I know your father Tom Anderson, Julian Lee Ahmed and Abraham.

And they become only three people that the “I” knows.

After she eats the girl washes her hands brushes her teeth and has a nap.

In such structures, it is not harmful at all if the students apply the serial comma for hobbies, daily routines and successive actions, especially if the subject (actor) is the same and the actions are habitual.

After she eats, the girl washes her hands, brushes her teeth and has a nap.

However, you can notice it that this could create ambiguity for the reader if the comma is not there. Most students absolutely forget about it. These actions could stand alone when the subject is repeated before the verbs, but this way the complex sentence creates redundancy. Sometimes the students place the comma in the wrong locations. Look at this incredible sentence:

After she eats the girl, [she] washes her hands, brushes her teeth and has a nap. When the students are not careful about the use the comma -especially when it is dearly needed for the sake of precise meaning- just expect worse than that would happen. The meaning in the sentence is not as evident as in the following, even without a comma.

Leila loves reading, writing poems, and fishing in the lake.

What can anyone understand from the next sentence that a student wrote?


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“My sister is mad about cooking old books and fashion magazines”.

Without a comma the sentence is grammatically correct, but it doesn’t make sense. Nobody cooks old books and magazines. The student wanted to say, “My sister is mad about cooking, and she is also mad about [reading] old books and fashion magazines”. It won’t assist the reader much, but at least it would make the meaning graspable if the student uses a listing comma and puts it this way,

“My sister is mad about cooking, old books and fashion magazines”.

The teachers should frequently train the students through such game-like quizzes to strengthen their reconciliation with the comma and put their relationship with the use of punctuation on the rails again. Parenthetical Commas

Now I presume it’s high time we tackled the work of the comma in separating dependent from independent clauses. Look at these sentences and tell me which sentence says the writer has got more than a brother and which one says she has got only one brother.

a. My brother, who lives in Casablanca, is not married yet. b. My brother who lives in Casablanca is not married yet.

Here we are dealing with a very particular type of comma called “Bracketing or parenthetical Commas”. Non-restrictive clauses, among other constructions, are known for their permanently requiring this type of comma.

Because of the commas, the words between the parenthetical commas are nonessential elements. They only represent an extra explanatory clause. It is just an interruption which removing it doesn’t really harm or obliterate the meaning. Hence the final alternative, “my brother is not married yet” and this indicates that I have got only one brother and he lives in Casablanca.

Whereas the second sentence, where the clause “who lives in Casablanca” is not between bracketing commas, means that I have many other brothers who live elsewhere and are perhaps married. The sentence without commas indicates that I am talking about only one of them, notably the one who lives in Casablanca.

In the same way, the parenthetical commas are used to make the words between them just an additional informative phrase. Appositives also are included in this category. Some students may argue that since the words between parenthetical commas are optional, why we should bother to write them in the first place. Obviously this is not commonsensical as argument. These words, though between bracketing or isolating commas, they are extremely important. They are very often used for emphasis, or as explanatory clauses. Take this one for instance,

Shakespeare, the famous playwright, was born in Stratford - upon-Avon.


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The words between commas are just for emphasis to make sure the readers are not mistaken about the person, and they would take Shakespeare for someone else with the same name; which is quite unlikely because the Shakespeare we all know is one, William Shakespeare. However, using bracketing commas is compulsory in some situations where it is feared the meaning will be lost in guessing. What do you think about the following? Is it correct this way?

The playwright, William Shakespeare, was born in 1564

I don’t think so. This sentence is incorrect with the commas because the information provided is compulsory to make known the very “playwright” we are talking about, as there are many unless, of course, it was mentioned before and the name inserted between the commas is just a reminder.

Can you decide which one is correct?

1. The students who watch too much TV become passive. 2. The students, who watch too much TV, become passive.

If you choose the first, you are right; because the second implies that all students including those who watch too much TV become slow and passive; and this is not fair at all. Because we are dealing with styles, the final judgement depends greatly on many other factors especially if the sentences are not discretely presented. Now, think about it. Which is more practical? Using word-play, riddles and games to teach the generation Y punctuation and particularly the comma, or dictate rules that are mostly threatening and discouraging. Teachers used to give advice tips like, “Avoid commas that are not necessary”. “Avoid run-on sentences they are hard to read”. The first thing the students would ask about is “how to do that?” To provide a convincing answer, you need a bunch of complicated more rules and formal indigestible examples.

In her book “Eats shoots and leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation!”, Lynne Truss says, “Proper punctuation is both the sign and the cause of clear thinking”. She also says, “The rule is: don’t use commas like a stupid person. I mean it.” Therefore, how can we make our unresponsive students abide by this rule? I guess this question will always ring out as long as the most appropriate approach to teaching them punctuation is still unreachable. When dealing with this approach, the teacher should be careful because this is not meant to deal with amphibology or amphiboly cases only. It is not meant to clear up equivocations, either, but it is meant to redress the use of punctuation in the students’ writings in the simplest and the most common way.


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Conclusion

The comma is used in other constructs like with direct speech, transitional phrases or words, after introductory words or phrases, with numbers, dates, addresses and others to organize information. The approach is not perfect yet. Who is talking about perfection? Nonetheless, with a little endeavour from teachers who think differently, it will be as good as almost perfect. I suggest that teachers introduce the students to the comma through such enigmatic exercises. They will surely enjoy that; and at the same time, they start to give this disturbing punctuation mark the importance it deserves. Now it is up to teachers to ponder and enrich the method with brilliant ideas coming from outside the conventional box.

The students will learn the rules just like by playing games. Because such exercises are challenging, they won’t say, “No!” and they won’t feel bored. The general purpose of such exercises is to make them accept and believe that the comma is not an ornament; and actually it is not. It can cause a lot of trouble understanding messages from written texts. It can save lives and it can suddenly reverse the meaning of sentences. Or it can make you say what you really never want to say. Above all, it can make your writing respectable and worth reading. When placed correctly, the comma can prevent ambiguity and lots of misinterpretations. It also can help the reader understand the meaning you want to convey easily. It can clearly make the sentence parts fit together. In a word, it foregrounds the meaning of your composition. This is a gain for both the students and the teacher. In the new digital landscape, the conventional road leading to learning punctuation is full of potholes, kettles or chuckholes. So, the learners who belong to this “echo-boom” generation feel as if they are aliens when they are confronted with conventional methods in teaching them both what and how to do things. Nobody would venture boast having discovered the only straight road to teaching punctuation to these “nexters”. The rapid pace of cultural change makes it impossible to even think about stability in what concerns teaching methods. However, you would, at least, agree this approach correlates with this generation moods, tendencies and concerns. They learn through games?! So “let’s game!” At the end, I’d like to sincerely apologise if you know this, and make you read all these pages, but I am sure there are many teachers who really need to be informed.

“Life is a series of commas, not periods”. Matthew McConaughey


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Bibliography

1. Crystal, D. (1996) Discover Grammar. Harlow: Longman. P151 2. Angelillo, Janet; A Fresh Approach to Teaching Punctuation 3. James, William; Principles of Psychology (1890) 4. Straus, Jane; The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation; 10th Edition (Jossey-Bass - 2008) 5. Royal, Brandon; The little gold grammar book - (Maven Publishing - 2010) 6. Mathews, Tim; The Adventures of Genius Boy and Grammar Girl (Grammar Nation, 2009) 7. Ehrenworth, Mary & Vinton, Vicki; The Power of Grammar, Unconventional Approaches to the conventions of Language. (Heinemann - 2005) 8. Runciman, Lex & Lengel, Carolyn; Exercises for Easy Writer; 4th edition, (Bedford/St. Martin’s - 2010) 9. KILLGALLONG, DON and JENNY; Grammar for High School A Sentence-Composing Approach—The Teacher’s Booklet (Heinemann) 10. Dawkins, John; Teaching Punctuation as a Rhetorical Tool 11. Meyer, F. Charles, JOURNALOF ADVANCED COMPOSITION, - TEACHING PUNCTUATION TO ADVANCED WRITERS (Volume VI) (1985-86). Copyright 1987. 12. Winter Moe, Maurice; Teaching the Use of the Comma - The English Journal (NCTE) - 2008 13. Trask, R.L. (1999)The Penguin Guide to Punctuation (Penguin Reference Books) 14. Truss, Lynne; Eats, shoots and leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation! ; (Profile books, 2003)

the comma for the millennial learners

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