Tuesday, November 11, 2008

I, hate, commas,,,,,,

I hate commas. A lot.

I enjoy a good set of ellipses and semi-colons don't bother me. I'm obsessed with the artful use of the long dash -- there's something dramatic and wonderful about that last form of punctuation.

But commas I will never understand. I appreciate their ability to separate thoughts and provide readers a pause in the middle of sentences and lists. However, I've never been able to use them correctly.

For my final paper in a senior AP Language course I chose to write about my dislike of the punctation tool. The only thing I was marked down for? Incorrect comma use. Does anyone else share my pain?

3 comments:

Jenni Rigby said...

I love Parentheses because it makes me think "I'm a form of punctuation that signafies an aside."

Emilie said...

My comma hatred comes when I see them blatantly misused. I understand the tough situations — where people like you and I probably misplace or omit them incorrectly. But some people's comma use ... atrocious. You, know?

Anonymous said...

I sometimes overcomma. Then when I go back and read, I sit there thinking, "WTF self? Why did you put a comma there?"

I do love the long dash though. Delicious.