fandom_grammar was the first place I went. But it still didn't clear things up for me and since I needed to know lat night I couldn't ask for them to do another post clarifying comma usage. Found a grammar sight that spelled it all out for me.
I get the commas in those examples. I'm very careful to use commas where I would normally pause in speech (around clauses and stuff). I've heard some really vicious debates over special commas in series. I remember having issues with it myself after years and years of having it drilled into me, "there's always a comma before and in a series". But then in college I learned that was going out of style and convinced myself to drop it. I've stuck with that because I think it looks cleaner (usually).
My issue stems from independent clauses linked with and (and but). I wasn't putting a comma between them. I guess it stems from my style of writing. I'm sure some of the major grammar geeks around noticed I like to use run-on sentences and sentence fragments a lot. It's not that I don't understand the grammar around them, I just like the style. The way the story reads with the full stops between clauses. Usually that's because I'm inside a person's head and humans don't really speak (and I would assume think) in correct grammar.
Some examples from my story as I have them written: Jack puts a finger to his lips and they all duck down behind the overturned furniture of the room.
Several minutes pass in peace and Daniel finally lets himself relax a little.
He winks at Sam and she blushes furiously.
Supposedly I'm supposed to be putting a comma before the ands.
The whole thing is giving me a migraine but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it (at least in my editing, apparently I still can't use them while I'm writing, lol).
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Date: 18 Aug 2011 05:55 pm (UTC)I get the commas in those examples. I'm very careful to use commas where I would normally pause in speech (around clauses and stuff). I've heard some really vicious debates over special commas in series. I remember having issues with it myself after years and years of having it drilled into me, "there's always a comma before and in a series". But then in college I learned that was going out of style and convinced myself to drop it. I've stuck with that because I think it looks cleaner (usually).
My issue stems from independent clauses linked with and (and but). I wasn't putting a comma between them. I guess it stems from my style of writing. I'm sure some of the major grammar geeks around noticed I like to use run-on sentences and sentence fragments a lot. It's not that I don't understand the grammar around them, I just like the style. The way the story reads with the full stops between clauses. Usually that's because I'm inside a person's head and humans don't really speak (and I would assume think) in correct grammar.
Some examples from my story as I have them written:
Jack puts a finger to his lips and they all duck down behind the overturned furniture of the room.
Several minutes pass in peace and Daniel finally lets himself relax a little.
He winks at Sam and she blushes furiously.
Supposedly I'm supposed to be putting a comma before the ands.
The whole thing is giving me a migraine but I think I'm starting to get the hang of it (at least in my editing, apparently I still can't use them while I'm writing, lol).