5 Sentences in Need of Commas

5 Sentences in Need of Commas 5 Sentences in Need of Commas 5 Sentences in Need of Commas By Mark Nichol Commas signal delineation in sentences, sometimes showing the break point between two thoughts and sometimes marking the beginning and end of a phrase inserted in the midst of a sentence. Here are five sentences in which a single comma, or the second of an inseparable pair, is missing, with revisions and explanations. 1. â€Å"Even when he was caught, some say he was plotting.† The phrase â€Å"some say† is an interjection in the midst of the statement â€Å"Even when he was caught, he was plotting.† It is not enough to merely insert the phrase; one must bracket it in commas (the first of which supersedes the original comma, the function of which is to separate the sentence’s two clauses): â€Å"Even when he was caught, some say, he was plotting.† 2. â€Å"Sorry guys, she’s married.† When directing a comment at readers, the writer must set off with commas the word or words used to identify the audience: â€Å"Sorry, guys, she’s married.† (Otherwise, the writer appears to be addressing guys who are sorry though they are sorry if they’re thinking they have a chance with the woman in question, so the erroneous version almost works.) The sentence is further improved by distinguishing the internal punctuation to enhance the impact of the statement: â€Å"Sorry, guys she’s married.† 3. â€Å"Now there’s a formula for ethical quandary.† Terms that are located at the beginning of a sentence and that refer to time (now, soon, before, afterward, and so on) may or may not, depending on their function, be followed by a comma, but in this case, in which now is used as a meaningless interjection and the emphasis is on the expletive there’s, it is essential: â€Å"Now, there’s a formula for ethical quandary.† Otherwise, the statement reads like a pitch from a television commercial for a shampoo formulated to eradicate ethical quandary. (Now, that would be a hot-selling product.) 4. â€Å"Residents decide driving, and shorter trips to places like Canada are safer options.† The phrase referring to travel to Canada is an interjection inserted into â€Å"Residents decide driving is the safer option,† with a change in the verb is and conversion of the singular option to the plural options to accommodate the additional choice: â€Å"Residents decide driving, and shorter trips to places like Canada, are safer options.† (Note that if the conjunction and were replaced with or, the verb and the form of the noun would remain singular: â€Å"Residents decide driving, or shorter trips to places like Canada, is a safer option.†) Alternatively, the sole comma in the original version could be omitted (â€Å"Residents decide driving and shorter trips to places like Canada are safer options†), but that revision changes the sense somewhat, turning a parenthetical aside into an integral part of the statement. 5. â€Å"This city knows how to create high-rise neighborhoods while San Francisco just talks about it.† Without a comma between the two clauses in this sentence, it reads as if one city has the knowledge about how to create high-rise neighborhoods during the time San Francisco just talks about it. But the meaning is that while San Francisco dawdles, the other city does: â€Å"This city knows how to create high-rise neighborhoods, while San Francisco just talks about it.† While is not used here to mean â€Å"at the same time,† denoting a continuation of one thought; it is a synonym for whereas, and the comma signals a new thought. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:The Meaning of "To a T"Use a Dash for Number RangesHow to Send Tactful Emails from a Technical Support Desk

Sylvia Plath Research Paper Example

Sylvia Plath Research Paper Example Sylvia Plath Paper Sylvia Plath Paper Essay Topic: Anne Sexton Poems Sylvia Plath (October 27, 1932 February 1 1, 1963) was an American poet, novelist and short story writer. Born In Boston, Massachusetts, she studied at Smith College and Newnham College, Cambridge, before receiving acclaim as a professional poet and writer. She married fellow poet Ted Hughes in 1956 and they lived together first in the united States and then England, having two children together, Frieda and Nicholas. Plath suffered from depression for much of her adult and in 1963 she committed suicide. 2] Controversy continues to surround the events of her life and death, as well as her writing and legacy. Plath is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for her two published collections, The Colossus and Other Poemsand Ariel. In 1982, she won a Pulitzer Prize posthumously, for The Collected Poems. She also wrote The Bell Jar, a semi- autobiographical novel published shortly before her death. Plath was born on October 27, 1932, in the Massachusetts Memorial Hospital, in Bostons Jamaica Plain neighborhood. [4] Her mother, Aurelia Schober Plath (1906- 1994), was a first-generation American of Austrian descent, and her father, Otto Plath (1885-1940b was from Grabow, Germany. ] Plaths father was an entomologist and was professor of biology and German at Boston university; he also authored a book about bumblebees. On April 27, 1935, Plaths brother Warren as born[4] and In 1936 the family moved from 24 Prince Street In Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, to 92 Johnson Avenue, Winthrop, Massachusetts. [81 Plaths mother, Aurelia, had grown up in Winthrop, and her maternal grandparents, the Schobers, had lived in a section of the town called Point Shirley, a location mentioned in Plaths poetry. While living in Winthrop, eight-year-old Plath published her first poem in the Boston Heralds childrens section. [9] In addition to writing, she showed early promise as an artist, winning an award for her paintings from The Scholastic Art amp; Writing Awards in 1947. 10] Otto Plath died on November 5, 1940, a week and a half after Plaths eighth of complications following the amputation of a foot due to untreated diabetes. Raised as aunltarlan Christian, Plath experienced a loss of faith after her fathers death, and remained ambivalent about religion throughout her Ilfe. He was burled In Winthrop Cemetery; visiting her fathers grave prompted Plath to write the poem Electra on Azalea Path. After his death, Aurelia Plath moved her children and her parents to 26 Elmwood Road, Wellesley, first nine years sealed themselves off like a ship in a bottleÐ ²Ãâ€šÃ¢â‚¬ beautiful inaccessible, bsolete, a fine, white flying College years [edit] Plath attended Bradford Senior High School (now Wellesley High School) in Wellesley, graduating in 1950. [4] Smith College, in Northampton, Massachusetts In 1950, Plath attended Smith College and excelled academically. She wrote to her mother, The world is splitting open at my feet like a ripe, Juicy watermelon. [13] She edited The Smith Review and during the summer after her third year of college Plath was awarded a coveted position as guest editor at Mademoiselle Magazine, during which she spent a month in New York City. 4] The experience was not what she had hoped it would be, and it began a downward spiral. She was furious at not being at a meeting the editor had arranged with Welsh poet Dylan Thomas†a writer whom she loved. She hung around the White Horse bar and the Chelsea Hotel for two days hoping to meet Thomas, but he was already on his way home. Many of the events that took place during that summer were later used as inspiration for her novel The Bell Jar. [1 5] During this time she was refused admission to the Harvard writing seminar. [13] Following electroconvulsive therapy for depression, Plath made her first edically documented suicide attempt in late August 1953 by crawling under her house and taking her mothers sleeping pills. She survived this first suicide attempt after lying unfound in a crawl space for three days, later writing that she blissfully succumbed to the whirling blackness that I honestly believed was eternal oblivion. [4] She spent the next six months in psychiatric care, receiving more electric and insulin shock treatment under the care of Dr. Ruth Beuscher. [4] Her stay at McLean Hospital and her Smith scholarship were paid for by Olive Higgins Prouty, ho had successfully recovered from a mental breakdown herself. Plath seemed to make a good recovery and returned to college. In January 1955, she submitted her thesis The Magic Mirror: A Study of the Double in Two of Dostoyevskys Novels and in June, graduated from Smith with highest honors. [17] She obtained a Fulbright scholarship to Newnham College, Cambridge, in England, where she continued actively writing poetry and publishing her work in the student newspaper Varsity. At Newnham, she studied with Dorothea Krook, whom she held in high regard. [18] She spent her first year winter and spring holidays traveling around Europe. Career and marriage [edit] Plaths stay at McLean Hospital inspired her novel The Bell Jar In a 1961 BBC interview (now held by the British Library Sound Archive),[19] Plath describes how she met Ted Hughes: I happened to be at Cambridge. I was sent there by the [US] government on a government grant. And Id read some of Teds poems in this magazine and I was very impressed and I wanted to meet him. I went to this little celebration and thats actually where we met Then we saw a great deal of each other. Ted came back to Cambridge and suddenly we found ourselves getting married a few months later We kept writing poems to each other. Then it Just grew out of that, I guess, a feeling that we both were writing so much and having such a fine time doing it, we decided and world-wanderer with a voice like the thunder of The couple married on June 16, 1956, at St George the Martyr Holborn in the London Borough of Camden with Plaths mother in attendance. Plath returned to Newnham in October to begin her second year. In early 1957, Plath and Hughes moved to the United States and from September 1957 Plath taught at Smith College. In the middle of 1958, the couple moved to Boston. Plath took a Job as a receptionist in the psychiatric unit of Massachusetts General Hospital and in the evening took creative writing seminars given by poet Robert Lowell (also attended by the writers Anne Sexton and George Starbuck). Plath and Hughes first met the poet W. S. Merwin, who admired their work and was to remain a lifelong friend. Plath resumed psychoanalytic treatment in December, working with Ruth Beuscher. [4] Chalcot Square, near Primrose Hill in London, Plath and Hughes home from 1959 Plath and Hughes travelled across Canada and the United States, staying at he Yaddo artist colony in New York State in late 1959. The couple moved back to the United Kingdom in December 1959 and[22] lived in London at 3 Chalcot Square, near the Primrose Hill area of Regents Park. Their daughter Frieda was born on 1 April 1960 and in October, Plath published her first collection of poetry, The Colossus.

Assignment 8(775) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Assignment 8(775) - Essay Example utcomes are aimed at developing an effective program, finding any modifications that should be incorporated in the program and realize any modifications that are not effective. Professional reflection is an essential part of action planning because the process of implementing new practices requires competent personnel who had specialized in a given field. For instance, one must have enough knowledge in order to come up with an effective research report. In this Chapter, Mertler states that the process of action planning in an organization entails using steps to action chart. This implies that only competent personnel can execute the whole process. In this chapter text, Mertler discusses the fundamental component of action research as the action planning. The text clearly explains the different forms of action planning that can be used in a number of set ups during research. They are provided as the informal and the formal plans. Although the author provides the typical outcomes that are likely to arise from the action research depending on the type of plan that is applied, he does not provide in-depth information on how to apply each in different circumstances. The piece is however insightful in the way that it guides the reader on how to plan and perform action research in varied ways. It provides the various steps that can be taken in the development of an action plan during research. This comprises the period from the initial planning to the final implementation stage. In a clear way, the author provides instructions on how action planning can be organized as well as the different levels on which action planning can occur. Thus, it is possible to apply each form of plan based on whether the research is being conducted by an individual, a team, at the school or the district level. In this case, action planning can occur at various levels of the organization that include the individual, team, school and the district level. The developing stage is made up of the