Hand in on Tuesday 4th March
Comma practice: Don’t
Splice me!
The comma: this little fella is either under-used or
over-used in students’ writing, but to obtain a secure level 5 in your writing,
you need to use them accurately.
Revision
(You know most of this!)
Commas are used:
1.
In lists. At
the market I bought wool, biscuits, a screwdriver and a birthday card.
2.
To introduce names. James, you must try harder with your use of commas. Your comma use
needs to be improved, James. As I have said before, James, your commas need
work.
3.
After a fronted adverbial (we did these
recently). Unfortunately, commas were a
problem for the class. Before marking
their work, the teacher wanted them to improve their punctuation.
4.
Around additional information. John, the man with the blue car, is really
good at using commas. The students, even year eight students, were forgetting
how to use commas.
5.
When you are starting a sentence with a
subordinate clause. After teaching commas
for the hundredth time, the teacher was a little weary. Even though they seem
straightforward, commas can be a little tricky.
When not to
use a comma:
You must
never, ever, not even on a Sunday, use a comma between 2 separate sentences.
This is the job of the mighty full-stop, and the comma is not up to the job.
Here are some examples of the dreaded comma splice:
1. I went to the market to buy
some wool, it was really busy.
2.
Commas were a real problem, they kept getting them wrong.
3.
He crept up the stairs slowly, he could hear the wind howling outside.
4.
Slowly, she entered the room, everyone was waiting for her.
5. I went to the medical room,
I had hurt my shoulder during Rugby.
How do we
fix this?
Mostly, comma splices come about because students are
reluctant to use full-stops and/or connectives. Sometimes a semi-colon can be
used to fix a comma splice, but we’ll leave those for another time.
TASK:
1. Re-write the sentences above using accurate punctuation. There may
be more than one way of fixing it. If you can think of more than one way, write
them all down.
E.g. I went to the market
to buy some wool but it was really busy.
I went to the market to buy some wool. It was really
busy.
2. Re-write this
paragraph into your books using accurate punctuation.
They walked up to
the ancient ruin, it was twilight and the shadows were gathering fast.
It was very difficult to make out the footpath. That led up to the grand
portcullis of the castle. The rickety
drawbridge groaned in the evening wind and swung eerily over the empty
moat, it was tempting to just turn and
go home, they did not want to go there but they had no choice, in the castle
their host was awaiting them
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