English Major here. Now, I don't remember when it started, but there's been a rule out for sometime now that in a sequence of events (three or more), you don't have to add that extra comma before the word "and." For example:
I couldn't believe she walked, talked and smelled like a man!
While I think that's great and all, I just can't seem to shake the comma! But then I've noticed that I've been adding commas everywhere in my writing. I'm one to write like I speak. I speak not only dramatically, but I usually digress with extra little tid-bits that aren't always necessary, but are deemed interesting enough to add them. It's something I catch every now and then, but just haven't gotten too serious enough about to give myself some harsh criticism. I add comas as I pause in thought. Though, I also use the "dot, dot, dot." But...perhaps, when, it, starts, looking, like, this...I'll, do, something, about, it...
In other news, my little 5 month old has lost two teeth already. Surprise, surprise! Apparently, his breed goes through a lot of teeth in their life. The first one I found by stepping on it--in my socks. The second one, Harley seemed to realize that something just fell out of his mouth as he investigated and played with it. TMI? Get a dog!
Recently, whether my vision is getting worse or not, it's starting to bother me that I can't see certain things. Movies aren't as interesting to me because they're not clear. I get nervous driving in new territory because I can't read the signs till I get close enough to them. I'm almost sure that my vision didn't just all-of-a-sudden "go bad." Foolish child I was--I had encouraged bad eyes. Why? I actually wanted glasses. Didn't the kids with glasses get teased with names like "four-eyes" or "nerd?"
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| You try brushing a dog's teeth. It's not easy. |
Perhaps I was into fashion-forward thinking, supposing they looked hip. Or maybe I just wanted to look more like Dad or Anna. Well, for whatever reason, if only I were so lucky to get glasses! I used to wear Anna's old, round, pink frames with no lenses. Believe me: very cool. Though, not satisfied with "play" glasses, the logical thing, then, was to pretend I couldn't see so I could get my very own glasses (with lenses). Making sure my "bad vision" was known, I walked right up to the clock, face to face, and read aloud the time, or bumped into a wall and said, "oh my! I didn't see that wall there!" It was supposed to render comments like, "oh wow Sarah, your eyes are bad. We should get you some glasses." But after my ridiculous, numerous, failing attempts to prove that my good eyes were bad, I gave up. However, I'm convinced all that has finally caught up to me--only now, (you guessed it!), I don't want glasses. I think I got my first pair of glasses when I was about 15, and I wore them a lot. I eventually switched to contacts. Once I started having problems with those, I went "cold turkey"--though I'm not sure that expression applies. :) But like I say, I've gotten tired of not being able to see. So, as of last week:
New glasses! Besides the pink, round, lensless frames, these are the biggest I've had. Come to find out, "you're supposed to get your eyes checked once a year" she told me. Posh! I said, "I'll see you in five years!" :)
And finally, something I'm coming to appreciate more in life are attitudes like this one:
Happy trails!
You know, I remember you posting a comment about the comma on one of my blogs...you mentioned a British Lit teacher who talked about simplicity and how that comma was unnecessary; however, I have something to argue on that.
ReplyDeleteHi, Math Major here. In mathematics, grouping is key to conveying information. If you have all of these parts of your mathematical sentence, they had better be grouped correctly and in the way that you intended it to be read, otherwise things could go extremely wrong.
For me, it's the same with the English language: lists with an "and" at the end should use that comma so as to cause ease in reading, because who's to say those two things weren't meant to be grouped together as one thing? I used to have problems reading the YA reading level because they did that all the time (e.g. "They watched the comedic, action, science and fiction movies from their pile." Was science and fiction meant to be "sci-fi" or science and THEN fiction?)
Anyways, that's just my opinion; along with that, I like semicolons as well.
Thanks for the comment! No, not "sci-fi"...they meant science and also fiction. :D
ReplyDeleteSee, in my own opinion, english and math are different. I'm not really one to make some wise comments on math, so I'll repeat what you've said: "grouping is key to conveying information." The GREAT thing about math is, there's only one right answer--so if you got the wrong one, you can go back and correct it. English, however, different story. If you don't like the comma, or you don't know if ending the sentence with a preposition is correct or not, or if you can't figure out if the apostrophe goes before or after the "s," then you just reconstruct the sentence--forget figuring out the problem! :)
It's a little hard comparing the two subjects because they're conveying two different messages, and they just function for a different purpose. In real life, math conveys: "This month, your expeditures surpassed your income." In real life, english conveys: "I have an idea and I'm going to get you to see it my way."
There are rules in both math and english--English just has more. :D