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?