Too, Many, Commas!!

[SalixIncendium]

I have a bad habit when writing of putting too many commas into what I write, and I find myself having to go back and edit out several when proofreading.

I consider myself to be above average with grammar, but I often surprise myself on where I throw in a comma, and when I go back to read, I know it shouldn't be there. I pick this out rather easily when reading what someone else writes and even in my own writing. But the habit is still there to just toss them in wherever when typing.

Does anyone else experience this, or am I suffering from an acute comma addiction? I fear someone is going to find me one day lying in my bed commatose.

 

[BSM1]

As a side note, I thought you had placed a comma between "out and "several". However, on closer inspection I discovered that what I thought was a comma was actually a dirt spec on my screen. Can you imagine my chagrin!

 

[BSM1]

I went back and re-read your post, and, dang, you do use a lot of commas...

 

[Polymath257]

I also tend to use a lot of commas, especially when writing longer sentences. My larger problem, though, is figuring out when to use semicolons. Sometimes, I put them in, then change them to a comma, then to a period and start another sentence, and then just fling up my hands is despair. In the end, they don't show up much in my finished work, but I do go round and round with them.

My typical way of putting in commas is to just put a comma everywhere I would pause briefly. If I pause for longer, maybe I really want to start a new sentence. But then there are those times when I a colon is required: making lists, or for longer pauses, for example.

 

[Rival]

Actually this idea of not using so many commas is quite modern. Read any Victorian literature and they use them freely.

 

[amorphous_constellation]

I have a bad habit when writing of putting too many commas into what I write, and I find myself having to go back and edit out several when proofreading.

I don't think I know how to use commas, so it's a point of constant contention and editing, apparently. I think maybe there is something subjective about the whole phenomenon of their existence

My larger problem, though, is figuring out when to use semicolons.

In theory, it's easy. If in the second half of a sentence you wish to explain an idea in an alternative/parallel way, that's when you use them. I don't think I use them, because I try to form ideas in a such a way that they are more unified, the use of the semi-colon would imply at least some instance of bifurcation in thinking, I feel

 

[Cooky]

I have a bad habit when writing of putting too many commas into what I write, and I find myself having to go back and edit out several when proofreading.

I consider myself to be above average with grammar, but I often surprise myself on where I throw in a comma, and when I go back to read, I know it shouldn't be there. I pick this out rather easily when reading what someone else writes and even in my own writing. But the habit is still there to just toss them in wherever when typing.

Does anyone else experience this, or am I suffering from an acute comma addiction? I fear someone is going to find me one day lying in my bed commatose.

I caught myself doing the same thing. I noticed it when I went back and saw I was using commas before the word "and"... That's when I knew I had gone too far!

 

[Cooky]

Actually this idea of not using so many commas is quite modern. Read any Victorian literature and they use them freely.

Thank goodness... I was getting a little worried there that something was wrong with me.

 

[Stanyon]

I do this myself and try to cut them down after I get done, I think it's a stream of consciousness thing with me.

 

[PureX]

I have a bad habit when writing of putting too many commas into what I write, and I find myself having to go back and edit out several when proofreading.

I consider myself to be above average with grammar, but I often surprise myself on where I throw in a comma, and when I go back to read, I know it shouldn't be there. I pick this out rather easily when reading what someone else writes and even in my own writing. But the habit is still there to just toss them in wherever when typing.

Does anyone else experience this, or am I suffering from an acute comma addiction? I fear someone is going to find me one day lying in my bed commatose.

Ditto, ...

 

[Cooky]

My typical way of putting in commas is to just put a comma everywhere I would pause briefly. If I pause for longer, maybe I really want to start a new sentence. But then there are those times when I a colon is required: making lists, or for longer pauses, for example.

In magazines, they use the "-" when adding on to sentences, while not introducing an entirely new sentence - something like this.

Ditto, ...

...Triple periods are really cool too.

 

[Rival]

I took a seat at the end of the hearthstone opposite that towards which my landlord advanced, and filled up an interval of silence by attempting to caress the canine mother, who had left her nursery, and was sneaking wolfishly to the back of my legs, her lip curled up, and her white teeth watering for a snatch.

5 commas in one sentence.

That's Wuthering Heights.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I caught myself doing the same thing. I noticed it when I went back and saw I was using commas before the word "and"... That's when I knew I had gone too far!

Technically you should use a comma before 'and' when there is a subject and predicate after it.

 

[shmogie]

I have a bad habit when writing of putting too many commas into what I write, and I find myself having to go back and edit out several when proofreading.

I consider myself to be above average with grammar, but I often surprise myself on where I throw in a comma, and when I go back to read, I know it shouldn't be there. I pick this out rather easily when reading what someone else writes and even in my own writing. But the habit is still there to just toss them in wherever when typing.

Does anyone else experience this, or am I suffering from an acute comma addiction? I fear someone is going to find me one day lying in my bed commatose.

Yep, I am notorious for it. Apparently I think like a an unwinding ball of twine, and don't use scissors to cut the twine into nice little pieces.

Your post motivates me to try and improve. You and I have commanality.

 

[SalixIncendium]

I took a seat at the end of the hearthstone opposite that towards which my landlord advanced, and filled up an interval of silence by attempting to caress the canine mother, who had left her nursery, and was sneaking wolfishly to the back of my legs, her lip curled up, and her white teeth watering for a snatch.

5 commas in one sentence.

That's Wuthering Heights.

The way I was taught is that there should only be one comma in that sentence:

I took a seat at the end of the hearthstone opposite that towards which my landlord advanced and filled up an interval of silence by attempting to caress the canine mother who had left her nursery and was sneaking wolfishly to the back of my legs, her lip curled up and her white teeth watering for a snatch.

 

[Rival]

Charles Dickens' own preface to A Christmas Carol,

I HAVE endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me.

So, comma-lovers, you're fine.

 

[Rival]

The way I was taught is that there should only be one comma in that sentence:

I took a seat at the end of the hearthstone opposite that towards which my landlord advanced and filled up an interval of silence by attempting to caress the canine mother who had left her nursery and was sneaking wolfishly to the back of my legs, her lip curled up and her white teeth watering for a snatch.

Me too.

Or,

I took a seat at the end of the hearthstone, opposite that towards which my landlord advanced, and filled up an interval of silence by attempting to caress the canine mother who had left her nursery and was sneaking wolfishly to the back of my legs, her lip curled up and her white teeth watering for a snatch.

Because you can use a pair of commas before and after 'opposite that towards which my landlord advanced' as it makes sense without that bit.

 

[Cooky]

Technically you should use a comma before 'and' when there is a subject and predicate after it.

Yes, that's right. But I found myself doing it when there was not a subject and predicate after it... A clear indication of poor punctuation habits.

 

[Vinayaka]

I have a bad habit when writing of putting too many commas into what I write, and I find myself having to go back and edit out several when proofreading.

I consider myself to be above average with grammar, but I often surprise myself on where I throw in a comma, and when I go back to read, I know it shouldn't be there. I pick this out rather easily when reading what someone else writes and even in my own writing. But the habit is still there to just toss them in wherever when typing.

Does anyone else experience this, or am I suffering from an acute comma addiction? I fear someone is going to find me one day lying in my bed commatose.

My aunt, an ex-school teacher, noticed it in the first book I published. Upon reflection I realised that when I paused to think about wording or other aspects of the writing, I added a comma. So yes I have to go back and edit about half of them out. Once in a co-writing project one of the other folks involved used them way too much. I'd edit them out, only to have them put back in. I finally dropped out of the project. There is such a thing as an optional comma, and if you make it into a compulsory one ... well.

 

[Revoltingest]

Forgive me, but you know that someone would eventually post this....