Yes, the comma denotes a dramatic pause. It's a perfectly valid use for it. Also, I don't claim to be a writer. I am a writer. It's what I am paid to do and it's my favourite past time. Now, would you like to make a few more personal quips over something I said which was not supposed to be offensive or particularly aggressive, or do you have a few more to go?

I thought we were having fun. But no. That is in no way a valid use of a comma. However, it's not like I never misuse punctuation, and I consider myself a writer. Again, I thought we were having fun.

Guys, seriously chill.. It's just my pubes.

For the record, I too disliked that comma. I would have opted for the tilde, or the interrobang.

Tildes have no place in decent sentences~

Do interrobangs have a keyboard shortcut?

e: it’s alt+8253 on Windows, but doesn’t work in the forum textarea for some reason‽

I copy-paste it from Wikipedia‽

There's no valid way to use a comma any way, there's standard and non-standard. Technically there's no 'wrong' way to use one. Of course that's all semantics, though. Maybe I read too much into your comment, in which case, I probably overreacted a little. Just seemed slightly unnecessary.

Man, now I pay attention to commas a whole lot more. I feel like everyone's using them heaps now. Stop it!

The semi-colon is my eternal foe.

But you're quite fond of the colon, right?

I fucking love semicolons.

Also apostrophes and quotation marks, both of which most people get wrong these days.

My nemesi have always been it's and its. Horrible, horrible, disgusting little words. I only really pinned down their usage properly before I started working on my most recent novelette. Before then I was still unsure on their usage sometimes.

This isn't What Do You Punctuate Like.

Can that be a thread?

Not yet it isn’t. Come on, thread split!

There absolutely are wrong ways to use a comma. You can't just make up new language rules because you misused punctuation, and got called out on it. Again, I was playing with you, but you are definitely wrong. I'm going to post a link to the Wikipedia article for commas so that you can view the many different ways that a comma can be correctly used. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma

Nope, sorry, I'm right. There is no 'wrong' way to use a comma, only 'non-standard' forms. Where one person may feel a comma is perfectly justified, another may decide it doesn't fit at all. When it comes to editing the use of commas, there are many instances where it must be included in order for the sentence to make sense to the reader. The main use for a comma is to create a pause. This can often be a dramatic pause, for example in the course of fictional discourse or during a speech given to build up emphasis before a noun or pronouns, usually it adds a condemning tone.

I really think you should quit while you're ahead because I have reems of sources and information to back myself up here.

reems of sources

Here’s a general rule, STM: if people are taking issue with the way you have written something, maybe you should consider changing it. Because you are not writing for yourself, you are writing for your audience.

Also:

Everything that you just said is shit. Every word of it. Show your proof, and I will concede the point.

It's not the way I write normally, and I'm all for taking on constructive criticism, I'm just pointing out that while it may not be a preferable way to use the comma, it was effectual and certainly not 'wrong'.

I know what I'm talking about here, writer or not because if you write about grammar being 'wrong' in an exam, you lose marks. The term 'wrong' or 'incorrect' no longer carry any weight in linguistic studies. Let me see if I can dig up something from one of my old AS text books.

E:

Right:

I can find more if you like, I didn't even have to get any text books.

This sentence does not flow properly at all.

Perhaps, I'm not trying to be scrupulous. Moreover you're ignoring the topic at hand now, no doubt because I've backed up my argument with a sufficient amount of evidence.

Again, that's just not true. There are most certainly incorrect ways to use punctuation. Let me give you an example: Harry was a, joint account manager. See that? It's wrong.

Unless you were writing discourse in which the person was thinking before they spoke:

John's eyes shifted to the left and he pondered for a moment, "Harry was a, joint account manager."

It's not wrong, it's non-standard.

That's what I used to tell my maths teacher!

The thing with maths is there's generally a right or wrong answer. English is more namby-pamby and down to personal interpretation.

That's what an ellipses is for.

In the exact same text you quoted:

That's observant of you, but you've conveniently left out:

It's all down to interpretation. There's no authoritarian body that denotes when the use of commas is right or wrong. If you and OANST have a problem with it, grow enough prominence amongst literary circles to declare yourselves head of some sort of Grammar Law Body and publish your new rules. It can be a fun little summer project for you guys.

You have offered no evidence to back up your claim. Until you offer up evidence pertaining to the way you used the comma, which you haven't, then you have not offered sufficient evidence, or evidence of any kind.

Your book is contradicting itself.

Eh, obviously you're not going to learn anything new today. You could do English pupils everywhere a huge favour though, go to the various examination boards such as OCR, Edexcel and AQA, and yell at them red faced that they're wrong to detract marks from exam papers that declare they've found grammar mistakes rather than instances of non-standardisation. I think there's an entire generation here that will find themselves at an enormous detriment if you don't do something.

No shit, but you have to write the way it is generally understood as acceptable, especially on something like a public message board. There may not be a solid right or wrong, but if it's quirky and "non-standard", it's wrong, depending on the context you wrote it in - as a message on a forum in this case.

I know what you're getting at, but if you take that theory to certain extremes, it's going to be incomprehensible, and if it's incomprehensible, it's wrong, because then why did you set out to write it in the first place?

I think school children have a bigger problem with writing than just grammar.

On the other hand, have you considered that perhaps “non-standard” is in fact synonymous with “wrong and stupid”? Because the phrase reminds me of the popular phrase among bad artists – “it’s my style!”

Unfortunately, you are misusing the English language, and being an absolute cunt about it. So here's a website that lists incorrect ways to use a comma. Learn something new today, you smarmy shit.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/607/02/

In fact, your usage of it is so wrong that there are no examples of it being either right, or wrong anywhere on the internet. It's so far from what's considered acceptable that no one seemed to have realized that anyone would have been stupid enough to use it that way.

Rather than being unnecessarily truculent, I might point out that this is the way I've been taught, this is what has been drilled into my head since I was 15, as far as I'm concerned it's this way or not at all. I'm being deathly serious here, if you have a problem with anything I've said, take it up with the examination boards that teach this. I'm done.

What happened to your reams of proof that you used it correctly? Come on, man. Learn me something new! I is too dumb to figure it out on my own.

Let's be clear. No one taught you to use a comma like that. Anyone who did should be stripped of their license to teach.

No, I mean, they taught us about non-standardisation, and that there isn't a 'wrong' way to use a comma. I still stand by the principal that you can put a comma anywhere in a sentence and I can justify it. There's no point in being any more forward about it because you're not going to believe me unless I physically send Stephen Fry to your door to explain it to you in person.

I think you mean “reems”, thank you very much.


Well I, can certainly see your point about commas. You can absolutely use, them, anywhere in a sentence. It really doesn’t, matter.

Here’s the simple version: as OANST’s links show, commas are used to break up sentences into chunks – clauses, list items, etc.

When writing dialogue, you can also make an argument that commas could be inserted to emulate the way a person’s speech flows (e.g. “well doc, I was, eh, y’know, diggin’ a hole”). That is the justification for your writing of “I simply pointed out that you, are not.”

The mistake being made here is that it isn’t dialogue. It’s a forum post, it reads as written text.

Your use of the comma breaks the sentence. If it was spoken aloud, the emphasis would be made by stressing the word “you”, as in “I simply pointed out that you are not!”; it would not be made by just adding a pause. And since you declined to add emphasis to your text and instead inserted a comma, it reads as an awkward pause in a single clause.

Thank, you and goodnight.