Comma-related manic episode / myLot

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

February 18, 2016 3:04pm CST

I wrote a previous post admitting that commas are my kryptonite. I can't always remember that basic grammar rule regarding their usage. So, last night I must have had an extreme, nearly fatal attack while writing content for a car rental company. This morning the client emailed me "please review the briefing, we specifically requested no semicolons and you used them several times, incorrectly. Also in the first paragraph, your use of commas, incorrectly, make the text difficult to understand." Well, he was right. I had 2 or 3 commas in every sentence! Needless to say, the revision sans semicolons and extra commas, is much better writing. Why can't commas have a simple "i before e" style rule? And semicolons - I use them to connect two related short sentences. Am I wrong?

2 people like this

2 responses

GreatMartin

@GreatMartin (23670)

• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

19 Feb 16

I am addicted to exclamation points--needed or not!!!! I always get semi-colons and colons confused but you know what? No one cares except grammar nazis--many Pulitzer winning authors have written very long run on sentences--some never use commas, colons, semi-colons, question marks, etc., and yet they get their message across. I have had 8 books published but am lucky I had a great editor!!