This week I am working with some punctuation that I am much more familiar with. The rule is compound sentences punctuated with a comma appearing before the coordinating conjunction.This is something I that I incorporate often into my writing without really thinking about. However, I did not previously have much of a grasp on the rules and concepts behind the two. For example, I had never heard the FANBOYS acronym. I did know how to use these conjunctions correctly, but I usually stick to the words and, or, and but when using this rule. To show the use of this rule I have found examples from a recent paper of mine on Stephen Chbosky's The Perks of Being a Wallflower. In this paper I used a comma before a coordinating conjunction 11 times, but 10 of these times used the words and or but. This actually annoys a little after noticing this. It feels repetitive. Now I will simply try and use more of the FANBOYS to help avoid this repetition, and hopefully give my work a better flow overall. (Yes I am aware that I just used a ,and again)
As I have already said my topic is compound sentences punctuated with a comma followed by a coordinating conjunction. A coordinating conjunction can be defined simply as a connecting word. However, you must know that there are only a few words that apply here. They are the words for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so. Many of these words can be used without a comma and still be correct. A comma before a coordinating conjunction is used only to connect two ideas relating to the same topic or idea. These are usually in the form of independent clause, but this is not requirement.
Example 1 and 2
Sam and Patrick are both critical to Charlie’s overall growth in the story, but in entirely different fashions. (Comma and a coordinating conjunction)
Sam and Patrick actually have several poor qualities, yet these are nearly erased by their overwhelming positive ones. (Comma and a coordinating conjunction)
This is actually a rule I understood, and already often use in my writing. I chose to work on this merely because on my review of this rule I noticed that I really only utilized a small portion of the options I could have used. For me it is something that I decided to fix, and not necessarily something that needed fixing.
I thought you explained a compound sentence really well, and I like that you went through a whole paper you had written and identified all of the compound sentences, and then were disgusted in your lack of FANBOYS variation. I'm pretty sure no one else reading your paper would notice that, but the little things are what improve our writing over time.
ReplyDeleteThe second example you give is perfectly correct, and it uses "yet," which is one of the less common FANBOYS words so nice job. Look at your first example again, though. You have two clauses separated by a comma and coordinating conjunction, but the second clause is actually not an independent clause. If you read it by itself, "in entirely different fashions" is not a complete thought. There is nothing wrong with this sentence--it is just not a compound sentence. You could make it a compound sentence by changing it to "Sam and Patrick are both critical to Charlie’s overall growth in the story, but they are critical in entirely different fashions," though I like the way you wrote it better because it's not unnecessarily repetitive. So be careful not to assume that all commas plus a coordinating conjunction imply a compound sentence; otherwise, you're definitely understanding the concept.