₦airaland Forum

Parenthetical Use of Comma

In the above list of some civic Nairaland guests, some of the commas are used parenthetically. That is the words in parenthesis could have been omitted without any destruction of the sense, the parenthetical phrase being, “leader of the expedition”, “his chief assistance”, “the chief editor”, and so on to “public relation officer”.

Other examples (with the parenthetical words in italics) are the following:

The inherent vagaries of writing are too well known, but, subject to this art, the prediction of success may be accepted.

In many local car parks, a prolific weed, the Indian-hemp, has always made a welcome appearance. (Note the correct use of the hyphen. An ‘Indian-hemp’ would be a hemp made by Indians; which is wrong)

Orikinla, one of the great Nigerian writers sought after, has written many books.

It is unnecessary to give any more such examples, but it might be added that clauses starting with relative pronouns, when inserted in sentences, are also parenthetical, as in the following:

His frightening experience, which nearly cost him his life, left him a nervous wreck.

Ikenne, where Obafemi Awolowo was born, is a picturesque little town.

The year 1960, when Nigeria gained her independence, was a milestone in African history.

The parenthetical use of comma, then, should be easily understood. But in using commas in this way the writer must not forget to that he is using a parenthesis, and a common mistake is to omit the second comma. Let us rewrite wrongly two of our examples:

The inherent vagaries of writing are too well known, but, subject to this art the prediction of success may be accepted.

In many local car parks, a prolific weed, the Indian-hemp has always made a welcome appearance.

The trouble is that the comma has so many uses, and is so inconspicuous, that it is apt to be overlooked. Now, if we chose to use brackets instead of commas for our passages in parenthesis, we should never dream of omitting the second bracket; so why omit the second comma?

The possibility of confusion when essential commas are omitted can be illustrated by the following examples:

In 1968 I was told there had been a war in Nigeria.

In 1968, I was told, there had been a war in Nigeria.

The first sentence is ambiguous. Was it 1968 when I was told of the war in Nigeria? I was not even born then. The correctly-punctuated second sentence makes the meaning perfectly clear.

Sometimes, you even come across an omission of the first comma. Here is an example of such error:

Nairaland is a forum held out by Seun Osewa for the purpose of offering knowledge, entertainment, and if required, the chance of finding a potential spouse.

The words ‘if required’ are a parenthesis, and there should be a comma after ‘and’.

If one comma of the parenthesis is omitted, so should the others be omitted, and many parenthetic words and phrases can safely be used without commas. An example is ‘therefore’, as in:

I therefore should be grateful for an opportunity to participate in this workshop.

The use of commas otherwise results in such stilted sentences as:

I, therefore, should be glad if you would show your appreciation of my effort by liking this post.

Similarly, it is considered unacceptably fussy or old-fashioned, in the writing of dates in a prose passage, to give the year parenthetically between commas, as in:

On the 27th September, 2010, and again on the 12th of November 2013, I completed my first two novels.

The commas can be missed out as in:

On 1st July 2007 I celebrated my twenty-first birthday with a fast.

Sometimes the first comma only is inserted, and the omission of the second leaves the parenthesis open, as in:

On 6th November, 2013 I opened a diary.

A comma should be used where a number follows the year as in:

In 2000, 14-year-old Larry received a letter from the future.

Confusing Enumerations

Confusing examples of enumerations occur many times in the national newspapers and various online articles, especially where names of dignitaries are accompanied by explanatory phrases. In using a conventional approach, frequently this kind of reporting appears:

A civil reception was held at the Nairaland Literature Hall of Fame today when Seun, Obinoscopy, Mukina2, Semid4lyfe, and Mynd44, entertained the members of the section to lunch. The guests included Dr Redmosquito, the leader of the expedition, his chief assistant, Ms Whitemosquito, Dr Chilo Ishilove, the chief editor, Frank317 and MaziOmenuko, the moral advisers for the female writers, the expedition’s secretary, Mr Divepen, the organizer, Ms Texanomaly, Ms Firestar, poetry manageress and instructor, and Dr Vantee20, public relation officer.

At a casual reading the list is not easy to understand. Information of this nature is better tabulated, but it is more literary to make a continuous prose passage of the information.

The news item would be more intelligible if use was made of (a) brackets or of (b) semicolons, thus:

(a) The guests included Dr Redmosquito (the leader of the expedition), Ms Whitemosquito (his chief assistant), Dr Chilo Ishilove (the chief editor),… and so on.

(b) The guests included: Dr Redmosquito, leader of the expedition; Ms Whitemosquito, his chief assistant; Dr Chilo Ishilove, the chief editor;… and so on.

Commas in Enumeration

It is modern accepted practice to omit the last comma before and an enumeration, thus:

They brought gifts of flowers, fruit, clothing, toys and money to the orphans.

Where the enumerated items collectively form the subject of a sentence preceding a verb, the insertion of a comma after the last item depends largely upon personal preference.

We can write:

All novels, poems, short stories and other literary works must be submitted to the moderators for review.

This seems preferable to, and reads more smoothly than, the following:

All novels, poems, short stories and other literary works, must be submitted to the moderators for review.

In the second example it can be argued that the comma after ‘works’ is necessary for grouping the items of the subject, but the grouping is given by the first two commas and the word ‘and’.

Now consider this passage:

Strong sense of duty, sympathetic regard for the feelings of others, high moral purpose and understanding of different points of view were the qualities for which the initiator of this workshop was loved.

In this passage each item is a group of words. It would probably be spoken with a natural pause after each item. The result would be better, then, with a comma after ‘purpose’ and another comma after ‘view’.

COMMA

The comma is a very useful little mark less abrupt that the full stop, it can mark the end of a clause or a phrase within a sentence and give a hint that there is something to follow.

While the use of a comma is fairly well understood, there is a tendency either to use too many commas or not enough. Here are some examples; each of them a failing:

-Too many commas-

It was a fine day, and the sun was hot. As I walked through the bush, towards the river, I heard the sounds of birds, whose caws followed me wherever I walked, but the appearance of the birds themselves seemed intent on eluding me. For an instant I spied a bird, perched on the top of a mahogany, but when this bird discovered that it had been spotted, it flew off again. I reached the river’s edge, and took off my clothes.

Truly, when we look at the above passage, we will discover no misuse of commas, but you will agree with me that there is an effect of jerkiness. The passage would be smoother, easier to read, if it was written in this way:

It was a fine day, and the sun was hot. As I walked through the bush towards the river I heard the sounds of birds, whose caws followed me wherever I walked but the appearance of the birds themselves seemed intent on eluding me. For an instant I spied a bird perched on the top of a mahogany, but when this bird discovered that it had been spotted it flew off again. I reached the river’s edge and took off my clothes.

-Not enough commas-

The members of the NL Super Writers today in an amendment proposed that the duty of an inductor is to write some mildly vilifying accusations about some erring members of the gathering as from the coming month to conform with the latest rules that may guide against the introduction of new members into the fold.

In its mad rush along, this passage is just as irritating as the previous passage which suffered from an excess of commas. The reader is left breathless. The following calmer version shows that a few commas are necessary:

The members of the NL Super Writers today, in an amendment, proposed that the duty of an inductor is to write some mildly vilifying accusations about some erring members of the gathering as from the coming month, to conform with the latest rules that may guide against the introduction of new members into the fold.[color=#006600][/color]

The Full Stop with Abbreviations

The full stop is commonly known to also denote abbreviations. The modern trend in the UK is now towards an “open” style for abbreviations in which there are few full stops.

It is usual to allow the full stop only to denote those abbreviations which are parts of words and those not abbreviations in which the first and last letters of words are given (contractions); for example, Mr, Mrs, Col (Colonel), Dr, Revd, St (Saint or Street), and Rd (Road). Typical abbreviations where a full stop is used are Jan., Sept., Mon., Lag., Gen., Capt., in. (for inches), cm., approx. and Co.

For initials of capital letters that stand for organisations the full stop is very much the exception rather than the rul. BBC is now widely accepted, as are AU, FIFA, KGB and so on. The forms _AD and _BC are rarely seen with full stops these days.

Lower case initials tend to keep their full stops—i.e., e.g., p.m. and the likes.
Incidentally—and unbelievably—if an abbreviation comes at the end of a sentence there should logically be two full stops—the first for the abbreviation and the second to mark the end of the sentence. In practice, nevertheless, it is conventional to make one full stop do for the two, lest your readers call you an eccentric prof..

I'm so very sorry for coming in after the lectures. Kindly forgive me, guys...most especially Divepen and OMA4U, I let you guys down. I'm so sorry!

PUNCTUATIONS

Punctuation can be regarded as guidance to the reader, so the use of capital letters and, in printing, the use of italics are included in the workshop.
The punctuation marks in English consist of the following:

Full stop .

Comma ,

Semicolon ;

Colon :

Question mark ?

Round brackets ( )

Square brackets [ ]

Exclamation mark !

Single quotation marks ‘ ’

Double quotation marks “ ”

Hyphen –

Dash —

There are also the apostrophe (’) and mark of omission (…). But, for the moment, I'll discuss on only Full Stop, Comma and Semicolon. Please bear with me.

FULL STOP

We all know that the full stop is used at the end of a sentence (anyone who hasn’t known this is not ready to become a writer). Full stop should indicate, in fact, that the sentence has come to a stop. Yet too often we come across letters that start like this:

“Referring to your letter of the 30th September.”

This collection of words is not a sentence, and after the full stop the reader is left floundering.

After “September” there should be a comma, followed by the noun or pronoun attached to the present participle “Referring”. A correct construction would thus consist of something like this:

“Referring to you letter of the 30th September, I am happy to say that your work shall be edited.”

An incorrect construction would be:

“Referring to your letter of the 30th September, your work shall be edited.”

This means, quite absurdly, that your work has been referring to your letter.

deebarbie:
dltinuke@yahoo.com ,thanks mr Larry

Sent.

Iaz93:
[size=33pt]WOW[/size]

It's terrible.

alomosweets:
Just sprinted in.
32 pages behind? ......do I even start?
Ok. Following. Great job Larry.

Slow and steady, dear.

Mercylee:
Larry! Hav i ever told you i Luv u. My God u r just too much. Muah. Lolz.

No kidding?

Thanks a lot, ma'am.

Adinije:
Larry, there are a lot of mysteries yet unraveled o! Pamela's confession, the 16yrs boy and his bank loot, kofo's confession: her murderer, his son's where about, etc. Hope u have not forgotten these pieces.

No, I can't forget them. A writer cannot forget his story...he dare not.

Toeyean1507:
what a twist! simply unbelievable. Well done,sir

Thank you, ma'am.

rapmike:
can't reply at the moment * falling down the stairs*


But seriously, larry.

Are you trying to say that Ruth is the daughter of Cain? Cos if Ruth is the daughter of Hannah but not of Jamal.........

We shall see.

bigsholly:
See twisting of life have always suspect her not to be blind but I never see this twist coming. Wow larryyyyyyyyyy you are the best no kidding.

Wow! Thank you, ma'am. If you could see my face now...I'm blushing hotly.

pricelesslove:
Larry, Larry Larry. you are the bomb
. may God strengthened you more and more. but how did the detective got to know all this?

He was lucky to be there when Hannah was convicted the first time. And other detections were made through deductive reasoning. Lot has a speedy mind.

haydot95:
thumbs up boss

Thank you, sir.

deebarbie:
Am like and also . Had to drop my phone at a point cos d 'wow' I kept repeating was just too much. Mr larry,i salute you. Please don't forget that I asked for brand of cain n dis story once u convert them to pdf format. U r just good at what u do

]Thanks a lot, ma'am. I have the uncut and unedited PDF format of 'The Brand of Cain'; you can send me a mail and I'll send it to you. The file is too large to be uploaded here.

joliematt:
awesome, n fabulous

Thanks, Julie.

pweeeetychi:
hmmmmmm, i never expected this twist, but i knew this woman wasn't blind, see d way she decieved all of them. She is a good actor

Quite a cunning lady she is.

ezeigbo194:
Larrysun u owe me an update dedicating tinz remember u promised

Yes, I'm definitely going to dedicate my next update to you. I may do that before going off to bed tonight.

Damex333:
Lot na psychic o.
Larry, she go kill herself like the famous Larry sorry I meant Cane.

queen xtar, I heard u have lovely stories, I really want to follow it.

Kill myself? Ha!

drsolob2:
i dnt just known what to say because am speachless.

I am too.

haruna1970:
waoh. Larry, you a genius of a writer. Thanks for the update.

Thank you, sir. I'm glad you're enjoying the story.

seunviju:
Abeg make I close my mouth b4 fly enter am.can't believe this,nawa o.Larry you are a wonderful writer,please keep it up and I pray the Lord bless you with more wisdom,knowledge and understanding and may you never lack any good thing.Wow,welldone sir,you are going higher places with this

Oh, thanks a lot, Seun dear. I badly need these prayers. Thank you, ma'am.

Olaitan3784:
Lovely story,started reading it yesterday,here i am 2day.mre ink 2 u pen nd mre knwledge 2 ur brain.

Thank you, ma'am. May God bless you.

Adinije:
Wow! Am speechless

I'm also speechless because you're speechless. Lol!! Speechlessness is contagious.

Queenxstar:
Oh my....!!!

Hello Queen. It's good to still have you.

Flakeey:

Jeez!!!!!!!!!!

*opens mouth closes it back*
hmmmm

haaa
o ga o
i'm speechless

but dat Detective na winch o

Oga Larry, well-done, i dey hail o
3 gbosas for u

by the way, how many people does Hannah abi na Zainab intends to kill for not going to jail
Jail is ur heritage ma'am

Lol!!! Jail is her heritage. Lol!!! I missed your sense of humour, Flake.

Updates shall come later, please manage the few I uploaded. Thank you all, love you.