Use Commas to Love Your Reader
00:00:00.000 | On occasion, we talk about writing on this podcast and episode number three is a great
00:00:07.000 | example of this. And just this week, Josh from Bel Air, Maryland writes in and asks
00:00:15.520 | this, "Last year," I think it was January of 2013, "you tweeted about how much you love
00:00:20.600 | commas. Can you expand on what you meant by this tweet? 'I love commas. No punctuation
00:00:26.680 | mark is more useful in helping a reader know how you want your sentences to be read.'"
00:00:32.240 | And of course, it should be noted for listeners that your tweet about your love of commas
00:00:35.760 | has no commas.
00:00:40.120 | I have the conviction that grammatical rules and punctuation rules are practical ways of
00:00:47.120 | helping us love people. So grammar has a moral dimension to it. In other words, it's a moral
00:00:55.920 | dimension. In other words, if we could agree on certain grammatical features, that's what
00:01:01.520 | rules are, agreeing on certain grammatical features, what they mean, we will be able
00:01:07.240 | to communicate. And that is a loving thing to do. It's unloving not to care if people
00:01:14.240 | understand what you say. If you say, "I'm going to talk and write any way I want. I
00:01:20.480 | don't care if people understand what I say," well then you're not a loving person, at least
00:01:25.320 | not in that moment. You're not acting in a loving way. It's unloving to cultivate patterns
00:01:31.320 | of grammar or punctuation that make communication harder.
00:01:36.920 | So when it comes to the comma, here is a friend indeed. This little fellow is the next best
00:01:43.920 | thing to being there. I mean, face-to-face communication lets you divide your phrases
00:01:52.280 | by pauses, right? But in writing, how does your reader know when you want him to pause?
00:01:59.280 | Answer? The comma tells him so. So here's a couple of funny examples. Really more serious
00:02:07.960 | and funny maybe. Ephesians 4.28, so I'll put in the comma. "Let him that stole," comma,
00:02:16.760 | "steal no more," comma, "let him labor working with his hands." Well, what if you dropped
00:02:22.560 | out all the commas or put them in the wrong place and you read it like this? "Let him
00:02:27.920 | that stole steal. No more let him labor working with his hands." Same words, just paused in
00:02:34.920 | different places. Well, that's the opposite of what you mean. And so the comma rescues,
00:02:42.640 | comes to the rescue to keep your meaning from being given exactly the opposite of your intention.
00:02:49.640 | And I just was online with Justin Taylor a little while ago because I could remember
00:02:55.400 | him referring to this issue and he pointed me to this one. The serial comma, you know,
00:03:02.200 | people say when you've got a list this and this and this and this, you don't need to
00:03:06.840 | put the comma before the last and. Well, here's one where if you don't, you're in big trouble.
00:03:13.840 | "I'd like to thank my parents," comma, "Jesus and Ayn Rand." Like, oh, Jesus and Ayn Rand
00:03:20.840 | are your parents? No, no, no, that's not what I meant. Well, then put a comma after the
00:03:27.440 | second and. So it goes like this. "I'd like to thank my parents," comma, "Jesus," comma,
00:03:33.560 | like it's before the end, "and Ayn Rand." So he's thanking three people, not parents
00:03:38.280 | who are Jesus and Ayn Rand. Without a comma there, it's very confusing and you'd have
00:03:43.240 | to reread it and say, "Oh, he couldn't mean that and so he didn't mean that." So rescue,
00:03:48.080 | be nice to your reader, help your reader. So when I'm writing, I think about the comma
00:03:55.080 | as a humble little servant ready at any moment to make my pauses clear. I'm not going to
00:04:03.160 | make it clear and thus make my meaning understood. So the rule, I have one rule for commas. The
00:04:10.160 | rule I follow is this. The comma signifies a pause in thought so as to avoid confusion.
00:04:19.160 | That's my rule. Given that rule, I use it wherever it's needed. I don't care what anybody
00:04:26.400 | else says, I'm going to use a comma if I can help my reader not confuse himself about my
00:04:33.400 | intention. Let me add one more thing and this would be a whole other way to go, but I've
00:04:39.200 | got to stick it on at the end here. I write to be heard in the ear, not just to be understood.
00:04:46.200 | I want what I write to sound good. I want it to have a certain rhythm or cadence or
00:04:55.480 | meter or pulse. And I think reading is more enjoyable and more impactful and more memorable
00:05:02.480 | if the writing sounds in the ear as good as it means. So any place I think people might
00:05:09.760 | miss my cadence and could get help from a comma, I'm going to stick in a comma just
00:05:16.600 | to help them keep going with me as if they're listening to me talk into their ear. So conclusion,
00:05:24.920 | for love's sake and for understanding's sake and for beauty's sake, I love this little
00:05:31.680 | servant the comma.
00:05:33.160 | Excellent. Thank you, Pastor John. Well, Jesus and Ayn Rand would have made a horrible couple,
00:05:38.200 | but speaking of matchmaking, what about online dating? Is that a legitimate way for Christians
00:05:44.260 | to find a spouse? Pastor John says yes, and tomorrow he'll explain why. I'm your host,
00:05:49.400 | Tony Ranke. We'll see you then.
00:05:50.360 | [END]
00:05:51.360 | 1
00:05:51.360 | 1
00:05:52.360 | 1
00:05:53.360 | 1
00:05:54.360 | 1
00:05:55.360 | 1
00:05:56.360 | 1
00:05:57.360 | 1
00:05:58.360 | 1
00:05:59.360 | 1