PUNCTUATION PUZZLE: How would you punctuate this sentence? (See comments for my suggestions.)
They did not object and thus the area was named the Bermuda Triangle.
The
first thing that stands out to me is the CS (complete sentence) on the
left of the coordinating conjunction (cc) and the complete sentence on
the right of the coordinating conjunction.
So place a comma before the
coordinating conjunction to create a compound sentence: They did not
object, and thus the area was named the Bermuda Triangle.
Secondly,
there is a word that is called by many different names in grammar
terms: thus. We call it a conjunctive adverb (an adverb that joins).
Conjunctive adverbs within sentences are always surrounded by
punctuation marks. In this case, the conjunctive adverb is dropped into
the sentence (and can be plucked out and the sentence will still remain a
sentence), so there should be a comma on each side of it. You can also
HEAR this comma: They did not object, and, thus, the area was named the
Bermuda Triangle.
I
would punctuate it like this--They did not object, and, thus, the area
was named the Bermuda Triangle.
However, when my older children were little, I
read aloud to them three to five hours a day. Commas show voice
inflection and fall, so they are especially near and dear to my heart
when reading orally to my kids through the years. Are you comma crazy?
No comments:
Post a Comment