July 26, 2011

Polished Writing and Advanced Punctuation Rules

The way a sentence sounds doesn’t always give you clues about what punctuation marks would be correct. Here’s an example from a theater critic’s review of a Macbeth production:

[Actor] Darren Bridgett is a canny, solid Banquo until he gets murdered, but doesn’t seem to take his role as a ghost seriously.

— Robert Hurwitt, “‘Macbeth’ at Marin Shakespeare Company,” sfgate.com, July 21, 2011

If you read the sentence out loud, the comma in orange sounds right but remains incorrect.

There’s one subject (the actor) and two verbs (“is” and “doesn’t seem”).

A comma would be correct before the word “but” only if a new subject came before the verb — e.g., the pronoun “he”:

Darren Bridgett is a canny, solid Banquo until he gets murdered, but he doesn’t seem to take his role as a ghost seriously.

Breaking this rule won’t cost you much credibility. But well-educated readers may find your writing more credible and polished if you learn the rule and follow it.

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Write It Well’s e-learning module Just Commas includes self-paced quizzes to help you test your knowledge of punctuation, and our book Essential Grammar includes a full chapter on commas.

We’ve made all the book’s exercises available as a free download here to accompany the e-book, which is now available on Amazon.com!

Do you have an important document but not enough time to double-check your punctuation or detangle long, intricate sentences? Just use Write It Well’s editing services.

We’ll make sure your prose is correct, clear, concise, and engaging so your readers will respect your voice and follow all your ideas easily.