Splice and Dice

Commas can be tricky. I know that I’ve been guilty in the past of overusing commas, omitting commas, and creating comma splices. As we’ve seen from examples in class, an omission or error in punctuation can drastically change the meaning of a sentence, or confuse the reader. Too much punctuation can also distract the reader and create a choppy rhythm in writing. This is why thorough understanding and constant practice of punctuation is so important.

The Socratic seminar this week about students who don’t punctuate their work was very eye-opening. I wasn’t aware of the fact that some students don’t punctuate their work at all on their own, whether I didn’t ever witness this in elementary school or just don’t remember it. I think if a student is allowed to move through school without being made aware of the mistakes he or she is making, the teacher is the one at fault. However, I also think that at some point a student needs to take responsibility for his or her own learning and be more conscious of whether or not he or she is writing correctly.

As far as I know, I have always punctuated my writing. My mother has a copy of a letter I wrote to an uncle when I was five. Even though some of the periods are in the wrong place, I punctuated even then. In elementary school I even delighted in punctuating my work because I turned periods into hearts and question marks into little swirls (I was quite the romantic child). I think that learning to write from an early age, and enjoying writing, helped to make me more conscious and particular about the way I wrote words and marks on a page.

As a college student and future English teacher, I am very conscious of how I write. I try and write purposefully and meaningfully. I think this is reflected even in something as seemingly insignificant as punctuation. I punctuate my work as I go, even in pre-writing exercises and early drafts. It seems counter-productive to leave punctuation as the final marker in the writing process, because it influences so much about what the words are actually saying. I hope to pass the understanding of the importance of punctuation on to my future students by modeling my excellent punctuation skills at every stage of the writing process.

Question: If you, as future teachers, come across a student who is not punctuating his or her work, or is punctuating incorrectly, how and when would you go about pointing this out to the student and giving further help?

Question NUMBER TWO! (because curiosity doesn’t really kill the Kat): Do you ever see an error in punctuation such as these in your own or your friends’ writing:

Drinking screwdrivers all night, puts you in a bad position.
Washington taxi drivers, should not crash into guard rails.

Yes, these are actual Myspace picture captions. Why do you think some people add commas like this?