While perusing some of my back issue postings, I've noticed something. I am addicted to commas.
To be fair, this has been pointed out to me at least once before by my readers. In fact, I am almost certain that this has been going on for a long time. Long, long before I began blogging. Likely from the moment that I picked up my first pencil, the fat chubby kind (mine had Garfield, yes, I still remember), and began to scribble out my first letters. If you go back and look, I'm certain that you would find a comma.
Why, you say? Perhaps this stems back to my speech therapy days, where I was encouraged to envision pauses in my flow of words and to breathe in attempts to slow my lingual velocity. After all, is not a comma a visual cue to pause, hesitate, etc?
Whether this succeeded in slowing me down, well, have a conversation with me and decide for yourself. But I do like commas, so help me. I feel that editors unfairly single them out, plucking them out of phrases in attempts to streamline a passage. Well, I don't want to be streamlined! I want you, reader, to slow down and smell the roses, so to speak.
Granted, if you breathe in with each comma that's in this particular post, you might end up hyperventilating and passing out at your keyboard.
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5 comments:
I am a big fan of punctuation so I say to you, if you want the comma then use and embrace the comma. However *comma* I HAVE noticed their frequency in your writing:) How do you feel about the semicolon? Maybe you could just mix it up a bit?!
Believe it or not, I'm a big fan of semicolons. I'll try to give them more play in my posts in the future.
I only like them in smileys,
;-) , :-) , ;-P , :-0 , ;-o
I like the smileys...GO HOUSE63!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You have read "Eats, Shoots and Leaves", right? I'm re-reading it right now. Good punctuation book.
I personally am a semicolon addict, but I try not to overdo it. Instead I'm trying to throw in more commas and straight-up colons.
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