Thursday, March 5, 2009

The Comma: Ally, Selena, Eric, Juliette

Put your examples here. Each student makes one comment before next Wednesday's class.

Posted by Brad at 3/05/2009 01:55:00 PM

4 comments:

ally said...

Sample sentence of using commas:

“Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.”
By Bertrand Russell

In this sample, the first two commas are used to enclose the phrase “simple but overwhelmingly strong” that modifies the “three passions”. The other two commas are used to combine and separate the detail of the three passions.

Here is my sentence using the same structure:

The feeling of happiness, a kind of ineffable thing, just hides in some ordinary details of life: a satisfying dinner, a sunny day after several days of bad weather, or only a warm hug from a friend.

March 10, 2009 at 3:31 PM
selena wang said...

Example sentence from “dim-sum strategy”: “But the insertion of a language (I’d not spoken and rarely heard growing up) into our lives seemed contrived, artificial, and destined to fail.”

In this sample, comma is used to separate a series of adjective those are modifying “the insertion of a language.” It is a very common and important way to separate a series of adjective or phrases. in grammar, these three adjective have the same function, but in structure, it will lose the balance of the sentence to put them together without any separation and pause. Here the two commas make a big difference to keep the sentence correct and well balanced.

My sample is here：Learning English, it is very important to read, to listen, more and more resources. Because you can learn new words everywhere, even in a café, you should always keep your ears upright.

March 10, 2009 at 11:39 PM
Juliette said...

Sample from “Adopting the dim sum strategy”

Sample sentence using comma to enclose:

“As he stood there, monologue-ing to anyone who would listen, I sensed his innate capacity for a multitude of languages going down the drain.”

In this sample, the comma is used to enclose an adverbial modifier “monologue-ing to anyone who would listen,” which tells us how “he stood there.” This is a very useful usage of comma, especially when we try to add more details in a sentence to make it more specific and vivid.

My sample with same structure is as blow:

As Arthur- my partner as well as a father of four kids- stood by the nurses' desk, looking at the mother holding her dead baby, I noticed the grey in his mustache and the wrinkles in his face.

March 11, 2009 at 2:33 AM
eric_is_here said...

Sample from "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince":

"Very well, Potter, here is your time-table."

In this example the two commas are used to enclose. Here it is used to show a break in the dialogue. This is a very common way to use enclosing commas. This adds emphasis to certain parts of a sentence.

My example using the same structure:

"Now, Igor, throw the switch!"

March 11, 2009 at 4:25 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)