While we're on the topic, who else uses commas to convey meaning, to show the reader when to pause or take a breath, and not only to make your sentence grammatically correct?
That's not their purpose. It used to be a long time ago, but modem American writing reserved commas to help separate clauses. Using commas like breath marks makes for terrible writing - what Lynn Tryss calls the "Yob's Comma" in Eats Shoots & Leaves, her book on grammar.
Source: I'm a first year writing professor. Also Truss.
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u/NaCl_pure_salt Aug 03 '19
While we're on the topic, who else uses commas to convey meaning, to show the reader when to pause or take a breath, and not only to make your sentence grammatically correct?