
Central and East European Studies
3. Commas and run-on sentences
Commas area very necessary form of punctuation. Using them wrongly has three damaging consequences:
- it makes text hard for a reader to understand
- it allows ambiguities to creep in
- it results in 'run-on' sentences, i.e. where commas are used instead of full stops, one sentence is created from what should be three or four sentences
A run-on sentence might look like this:
- When assessing the role of the natural environment in creating national identity there are many examples of people who played key parts in developing this role, such as Dmitry Anuchin and Pyotr Semonov as anthropologists and ethnographists and also Chekhov and Gogol from the literary world, the environment seems to have provided inspiration in this romantic age although it was science in 19th century Russia that was a way of life rather than a career something that is contrary to modern assumptions but knowledge of science seemed to generate a sense of moral superiority and fuel the struggle against Tsarist authority.
The above sentence should be divided into four. Some changes to the text may be necessary to make the text flow:
- When assessing the role of the natural environment in creating national identity, there are many examples of people who played key parts in developing this role. Both Dmitry Anuchin and Pyotr Semonov as anthropologists and ethnographists were important, as were Chekhov and Gogol from the literary world. The environment seems to have provided inspiration in this romantic age although, contrary to modern assumptions, it was science in 19th century Russia that was a way of life rather than a career. It was knowledge of science that seemed to generate a sense of moral superiority and fuel the struggle against Tsarist authority.
A tip: read your text aloud and listen to the flow. If a comma trips you up, it's in the wrong place. If you find yourself puzzled by the sense of your sentence, you may need to replace some commas with full stops. Remember that you're trying to convey information as clearly as possible. Wrongly placed commas do not clarify, they muddle.
In addition to that all-important tip, here are some basic uses for commas:
1. To separate items in a list:
- He had many titles: anthropologist, ethnographist, archaeologist and geographer.
N.B. If the list is long and complicated, it's sometimes also helpful to put a comma before the last item. This is known as a serial comma.
- This essay focuses on four topics: the new security agenda, the theory of security, the international context, and how concerns about security impact on ordinary citizens.
2. To join two related sentences the second of which begins with and, or, but, yet or while, if this makes the text easier to understand:
- The revolution was welcomed, but people were nervous for their security.
3. To enclose a subordinate clause (a clause within a sentence that adds information):
- Kropotkin, sometimes known as the 'Anarachist Prince', was highly influential.
4. To mark the beginning or end of direct or quoted speech:
- Communism is 'Soviet power plus the electrificaton of the whole country,' Lenin famously said.
- However, there are several problems with this conclusion.
- Furthermore, Poland had no real tradition of regional federalism.
- First, this essay will focus on economics. Secondly, it will focus on social fragmentation and regional disparities.
6. To separate out adverbs within sentences, if this makes the text easier to read.
- It was then, however, that theory and practice diverged.
- He declared, furthermore, that the theory was flawed in other ways.
Task | Task Type | Difficulty |
---|---|---|
Task 1 | Free text | Easier |
Task 2 | Free text | More Challenging |
Task 3 | Free text | Easier |
Task 4 | Free text | Moderate |
Task 5 | Free text | Moderate |