A large senior health center in my neighborhood recently hoisted over its main entrance a banner that reads: Thank you team, for fulfilling our mission. Many of us, unfortunately, were first taught to punctuate by following our breath: put a comma where you breathe, we were told earnestly and often. This is excellent advice at …
Author Archives: rultimo
Because
One of the good, reliable rules of English punctuation is that no comma is required after a main clause when a subordinate clause follows. So, for example, I’m going to go biking this weekend if it doesn’t rain. Clauses are made subordinate when they begin with a subordinating conjunction (when, since, if, after, although, because …
Closely Reading Santayana
I happen to admire the thought and language of George Santayana, an American philosopher of Spanish background who died in 1952. Santayana is probably best known for his novel, The Last Puritan, a best-selling book in 1936 which was eventually nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. The protagonist of the story is Oliver Alden, and in …
For a While or For Awhile?
Here is a simple sentence with a deceptively simple mistake: I spoke to her yesterday for awhile. The problem is common enough that it often passes unnoticed, but something is stirring in the concluding prepositional phrase. There is the old adage that writing is rewriting. Let’s apply the adage. A phrase, we remember, is a …
Commas: To Use or Not To Use
A number of months ago, in a post called Apposition, I took up the question whether commas would be necessary in a sentence like this: My brother, George, is tall. Recently, I was talking with someone who tutors middle school students, and the materials he is compelled to use on the same topic were downright …