Comma, Comma, Comma, Comma, Chameleon!

My fellow, Literati!  Oh!  How I hang my head in shame!  It’s been weeks since I’ve posted a new blog and I am ashamed!  There are reasons, excuses as to why I found no time between work, writing, and critiquing...but I’d rather not bore you! 

I hope this post finds you all well and happy! 

I’m in an awesome writing group and received my Middle Grade novel back from one of my reviewers (let’s call her E.K. because she comes up again later).  I’m fortunate enough that she’s also an editor at a very big publishing house and her feedback was amazing!  I’ve updated the novel and am ready to now send it to the agents that requested it at Backspace.  Super excited!  I must admit, my “Thank You” page in my novel is going to be quite long!

I also received a few blog awards from the awesome E.B. Pike!  Check out her blog, Writerlious, it is awesome!  So  a BIG thank-you to E.B.  I’m not sure how to post the awards on my Blogger blog, but I tip my hat to you!

I thought I’d share a sentence with you that has been in my novel since it was just a very rough draft.  I’ve read my book about thirty times and never caught it.  Other have read my book and never caught it.  But it makes me laugh when I think about it.  E.K. caught it though and I love her comment that went along with it too.  Here’s the sentence:

“You need to eat young man!”

Did you catch the error?  E.K. pointed the error to me with this comment: “Unless he’s a cannibal, you’re missing a comma. (smiley face)”

No, he’s not a cannibal.  J  But it does remind us how important one little mark can be.  Do you have a favorite sentence or phrase that can mean something totally different if missing a comma?   More on commas to come!  Also, look for the next installment of our Fairy Tale series this week!

Happy Writing!

Splicing It Up

Good afternoon, Literati!  Today I thought I’d take a moment to talk about the comma splice.  A fellow Literati sent me an article from yesterday’s edition of The New York Times entitled, The Most Comma Mistakes.  I thought it was a clever title. 

The comma splice was a close friend of mine in high school back when I believed the comma’s best usage was to add a pause in my writing.  I will admit this, I love commas; but I love semicolons just a little bit more, so it is not often that I find myself in a comma “splicy” situation. 

To review, a comma splice is when a comma is used between two ideas that should really be their own sentences.  Example:

The little girl had a lollypop, the little boy ate an apple. (wrong!)

The little girl had a lollypop; the little boy ate an apple.  (right!)

The little girl had a lollypop.  The little boy ate an apple.  (right!)

The little girl had a lollypop, and the little boy ate an apple.   (right!)

As you can see from the above correct sentences, the comma splice error has an easy fix (or rather, several easy fixes)!  As I said above, I personally like the semicolon.  Just remember that a semicolon can only correct a comma splice if the subject of each sentence is similar to one another.  Example:

They were on a shopping spree; Macy’s was having a clearance sale!  (right!)

They were on a shopping spree; popcorn sounded good.  (wrong!)

In the first example, the second part of the sentence explains why “they” were on a shopping spree and “Macy’s was having a clearance sale” expands on the original subject of shopping.  In the incorrect example, shopping and popcorn have no relation.  They are both two completely separate thoughts.  In this case, the semicolon wouldn’t work for correcting a comma splice, and the sentence should be broken up with a period.

If you would like to read The New York Times article that inspired this blog post, click here.

Do you have a good example of common errors in comma usage?  One of my biggest pet peeves is the absence of the oxford comma...but alas, that’s for another post...

Happy reading and writing!