Comma Confidence

I never would have believed a simple comma placement could cause so much confusion, until this week’s classes where we discussed introductory clauses and where the pause should take place. Commas have never been a nuisance for me, but I’ve seen it before. The short sentences that should have commas don’t. Because the author doesn’t know how to use a comma. I find it funny that an item as simple as a comma and an idea so easy to grasp can cause so many green squiggly lines underneath writing in MS Word because there is a very important missing component that the writer chooses to neglect.

As for the idea of AAAWWUBBIS I found the concept quite interesting. Much of the lessons I am getting in this class are things I already knew, but didn’t really know I knew. Take the idea of putting a comma before “but” as I did in the previous sentence. I do that naturally most of the time without paying attention to it, but now that I know the rule, I find myself double-checking my comma placements.

However, after spending the bulk of two days learning bout comma placement, sentence structure and the like, we read this piece by Gary Provost. I really liked his writing as it played to the creative side of writing, my favorite area of writing. I guess the piece was full of errors, but it was refreshing to see how his writing could make so much sense while being deemed “grammatically incorrect” by us grammar-heads.

I like writing creatively like Provost does. I do it sub-consciously most of the time. I just like how it sounds in my head as opposed to the way I guess I should frame my words. But, I need to make a stronger approach towards punctuating my writing correctly, while still adding my own creative style. This week’s class helped me to pay closer attention to my writing. By reaffirming these tactics that I have (for the most part) employed for quite some time, I am more confident in my writing and the formal layout of my sentences. If I can keep on this pace I will no doubt master the language.

My question this week is: After learning a lesson such as introductory clauses, do you also feel the same reassurance in your writing that I do? I mean, are you more confident when adding a comma for effect, now that you know it really should go there?

Powerful Punctuation

When looking at a block of words, the only thing keeping them from being a jumbled mess are the many different kinds of punctuation. These tiny marks are often overlooked, and are most definitely underrated. But with so many of them to keep track of it is quite a hard system to learn. Teaching younger children the basic rules of punctuation is a difficult task. Being able to cross the student’s minds from spoken word to the written word is incredibly confusing. The many differences between the two styles are hard for a young mind to comprehend.

The Socratic seminar we had this week about how older kids learn punctuation was pretty interesting. Come to think of it, I haven’t really given punctuation much of a thought since I was younger. I think the subject becomes an afterthought after writing so many essays in my life. Sometimes I am surprised as to where I put my punctuations, and when I’m typing my fingers put the punctuations there for my drone-like brain.

One of the more common themes we talked about in our discussion Wednesday was the idea that punctuation is very often overlooked. For those who understand punctuation, it gets more difficult to teach in a way. It becomes an expected thing to be able to punctuate writing. So when a teacher sees a student’s piece of writing with poor punctuation, their instinct is to just correct it with a red pen and not bother to teach the student the right way.

This teaching move is in my opinion one of the worst ways to try and teach a concept. It is the exact opposite of the teaching model discussed in the book, and gives no chance for the student to “do” anything. This is the all too common fatal mistake in the area of punctuation. Rather than giving a personal lesson on exactly what the student has confusion on, the only help a student gets is with little marks in the margins of their paper. The idea that a student can misunderstand the rule, and in their own head think they are right, and continue this mistake in each piece of writing. More attention needs to be paid in teaching each student the right way to avoid this costly misunderstanding. Punctuation is not a very difficult concept once it is fully understood, but fully understanding its complexities is the hardest part.