A Little Dab Will Do
October 23rd, 2007 by Therese Walsh
I’m in deep-edit mode today, so here’s what you’re getting from me: a warning about commas that applied in 1905 and probably still applies today.
Any one who finds himself putting down several commas close to one another should reflect that he is making himself disagreeable, and question his conscience, as severely as we ought to do about disagreeable conduct in real life.
- The Fowler brothers, The King’s English, 1905
Check out some fun and useful info through The Comma Project at The University of Wisconsin, OshKosh (b’gosh), including:
* Ten Simple Rules for Using Commas
Write on, all!
My hubby always complains about my overabundance of commas… I will be checking out those links. Thanks!
I hope they’re useful, Mary. I’ve been a little nutty lately with dashes, semicolons and even parentheses. I’ve become a Punctuation Addict!
Maybe you know about that little gem of a book, “Eats, Shoots and Leaves”? I have the calendar of same next to my bed and read a page right before lights out. I have the most outrageous dreams…who knew punctuation could be so provocative???
Sounds like a calendar I’d enjoy, Cath!
I’ve really enjoyed reading through Noah Lukeman’s A Dash of Style. In fact, my copy of that book might be more marked up than Browne and King’s Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. I highly recommend it. (It’s on our sidebar here at right, btw.)