Punctation/Grammar questions

[bardos]

1. no comma

2. no dash.

[pulykamell]

@Colophon

(I’m assuming you meant “logical” rather than “natural”.)

I agree with you that there shouldn’t be a comma there, but that’s not what I understand by a splice. A splice is typically a comma where there should be either a semicolon or a full stop, as in:

I arrived at the shop at twenty past five, it had already closed.

I wouldn’t call it a splice if there’s a comma where there should be no punctuation at all, as in your example.

:smack: You’re right – I misused the term “comma splice.” I thought it referred to both examples of comma misuses (in independent clauses without coordinating conjunctions and in my examples), but it’s just the former.

[panamajack]

@BlakeTyner

According to the Little Brown Compact Handbook,

Was this a typo, or a subtle joke on the importance of punctuation?

[BlakeTyner]

@panamajack

Was this a typo, or a subtle joke on the importance of punctuation?

Heh…I wish I’d been that clever. It was a typo. “The Little, Brown Compact Handbook.”

[markci]

Punctuation has no purpose of it’s own. It’s there to help the reader and that comma fills no function at all.

It serves the same function as any comma ever serves. What do you think they’re for?

The comma is, without any doubt, needed and appropriate. The sentence is slightly difficult to parse without it.

[Bosstone]

@pulykamell

Like I said, I disagree. When I worked as a copy editor, I saw more than my fair share of comma splices.

(Using this post as a springboard, not directly responding to it)

I’ve got the same job, but I look at transcripts. Believe me, putting commas where pauses naturally occur in speech renders the written word absolutely unreadable.