When Shakespeare wrote The Merchant of Venice back in 1596 or ’97, he peppered it with commas. His commas were meant to tell the actors in his play to pause in their reading or emphasize a word or phrase with a hesitation.
For thousands of years, commas served as directions to actors and readers.
When I directed church choirs, the composer of the anthem would write the music to show where he wanted a pause. Occasionally, when my choir would do a choral reading instead of music, I would put commas in the copy they were to read in order for them to pause together.
If you read out loud to your children or to your writer’s group, or if you read your own stories out loud, you’ll put expression in your voice, including pauses and inflections for emphasis.
If Shakespeare had written the above sentence, he might have added even more commas, like this: “If you read out loud, to your children, or, to your writer’s group, or, if you read your own stories out loud, you’ll put expression in your voice, including pauses, and inflections, for emphasis.”
For thousands of years, commas served as directions to actors and readers. Now that we mostly read silently, commas serve to clarify the meaning and prevent misunderstanding.
When I was in sixth grade (oh, so many years ago!), I learned to put a comma before the “and” in a string of words, like this: red, orange, green, black, and blue. And always between parts of and after a date or city and state, like this: In January, 2002, I lived in Jacksonville, Florida, with my aunt.
Now, writers, editors, and publishers are going to the opposite extreme, taking out commas right and left. Read that string of colors with a comma and without. Since “black and blue” is used as an idiom for a bruise, to me it doesn’t read right if you want it to mean two colors: black, and blue.
Maybe that lack of commas doesn’t bother you, but I’m an “aural” reader, and I want to “hear” the pauses.
Commas in Fiction vs. Nonfiction
If you’re a fiction writer, I think you’re fine punctuating your story any way you want to, but if you’re a nonfiction writer like I am, I think you should play by the rules and follow the old-fashioned “Oxford Comma” rules. There was even a legal case that was settled for $5 million because of the lack of an Oxford comma (look it up).
What Does a Panda Have to Do with Commas?
The best treatise of all about punctuation is a book by Lynne Truss, who lives in England. The back jacket sports a popular joke:
A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, draws a gun and shoots into the air. (In some versions he shoots the waiter!)
“Why?” asks the waiter.
The panda produces a wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder. “I’m a panda,” he says, at the door. “Look it up.” (Note the comma after “says”. Otherwise, the Panda is saying it to the door instead of the waiter.)
The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.
“Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.”
The title of the book is Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. Get it. Read it. Not only will you learn what we punctuation geeks are trying to say, you’ll enjoy it immensely.
That’s not all there is about using commas. But these annoy me the most. (Yes, I could have used a comma and a lower case B here, but I wanted a longer “pause.”)
Gerri Almand
Great blog about commas! Thanks.
Lee Gramling
Hi, Peg. I’m an “aural” (i.e. slow) reader myself, and I hope an “oral” writer as well. I always try to write as if I were just telling a story to some friends. But that said, I am also a comma minimalist. Editors always want to insert extra commas into my work and I usually let them because it makes them feel useful.
I’ve often found that a slight change of wording can make the “comma dilemma” moot. In the example above, “I’m a panda,” he said from the doorway . . .” will remove any confusion. On the other hand, I used to demonstrate the value of commas to my classes by writing, “Let’s eat, grandma!” on the blackboard — and the erasing the comma.
Peggy Lantz
Hi, Lee, Thanks for your comment. Almost always, something can be written another way to avoid confusion. When will I see your next Cracker Western? Peg
Rick Burr
Hello Peggy,
Thank you for this. I am a retired English teacher, and always taught my students (who were all just learning to drive) to forget all the complicated grammar rules and instead see punctuation as being like traffic signs, meant to guide the reader in hearing how a sentence should sound.
What always bothered me was that the “rules” of grammar were written after the great literature was produced, and the creation of these standards came from the pens of non-literary greats, usually those drawn to mathematical precision rather than the beauty of prose.
Your article is a wonderfully articulate ray of sunshine on a dark soup of rote.
Peggy Lantz
Thank you all. My next blog will be about quote marks and periods!
Charlene Edge
Wonderful post on a relevant issue. I appreciate the thoughtfulness and humor you put into it.
Sharon K Connell
We all have to decide which rules we will use and which we’ll break. I love the Oxford comma. It makes everything more understandable. And I tend to think like Shakespeare, just not as free with the commas.
When I first started writing, my proofreader said, “You need a comma corral.” LOL I’ve since learned to use them where they belong, and where I want a little pause in the narrative or dialogue. For emphasis, I use italics. Great article.
Daniel Holub
I enjoyed this article and related comments more than you know! I write as I think, separating thoughts and emphasis using commas, as I was taught. My editors often disagree, and insert or remove commas, changing the meaning or emphasis of a sentence through their structural changes. Readers then read as they learned, again changing the emphasis, and thereby often misconstruing the meaning of sentence after sentence, as they get caught up in their comma mania. I get the feeling that everyone is an expert on where commas should be placed except the writer telling the story! And the story line suffers.
Peggy Lantz
I sympathize, Daniel. Editors are not always write, I mean right.
James
Sorry, wasn’t certain Pandas had paws.