This presentation is going to cover commas and semicolons. I know some of you are
pretty familiar with them but; however, I wanted to go over this presentation.
Again just like the parallelism, this this is also put on has a PowerPoint. You can
read the comments I have there or you can just watch this video whatever you
feel more comfortable with. So let's go through the video. The first part we're
going to talk about is comma usage, the basics. If you notice, there's an
acronym here called luci. There are the 4 ways in which we can use a comma. L stands for
list. U stands for unnecessary phrases. C stands for combining sentences with
coordinating conjunctions. I am sure you are familiar with fanboys for compound
sentences. And then I is for introductory elements that begin a sentence. So here's
luci. Lets go through
Luc I together one by one. So, I know that if we're going to write a sentence and
we're going to list things. I need to bring my backpack comma my books comma my
calculator comma and my outside reading book. I was taught when I was in school
that the comma before the conjunction the last sonjunction- you should have a
common there, and that's the way I write.
However, if you leave the comma out, it's ok. I leave it or I use it because that's the
way I was taught when I was in school. So again the rule is place a comma after
every item in the list. But this last comma before the conjunction and is
called the Oxford comma. it's not necessary, but again I use it because
that's the way I was taught. Next we have the
U the U stands for unnecessary elements. These are non-essential, so we could pull
them out of the sentence and the sentence would still make sense. Let's take a look
at the example- the girl behind the counter comma who runs the whole place
comma handed me my change. Now if we were to check out who runs the whole place, we
would read- the girl behind the counter handed me the change. We know that who
runs the whole place is just extra information. It's
unnecessary. Therefore, we could just put commas around it.
Next take a look here- however usually with however we will have a semicolon.
I'm sure that's what you use to. However, this is not being used as a conjunctive
adverb as we will see later. But let's just take a look here- if you work hard
comma however comma you might just succeed. If we take that however out. Let's
read it- if you work hard you might just succeed. So here the however is not
essential to the sentence- it's not necessary- it's unneccesary. To me, I call this an
interrupter. It's interrupting the flow of the sentence, but if you want to
remember as unnecessary element perfect. Ag ain if you can take it out, it's
unnecessary so you should put commas around it.
Take a look here- again comma comma comma comma- we put them around- we could take
this phrase out,
and we could take out the word however and they would still make sense. Look at these
commas. I like to refer to them as scissors, c for comma c for cut. Wecan cut them
out. Let's look at this example of the scissors being used as commas. Joe comma
the guy who lives down the street comma gave me this rod and reel. So let's go
ahead and cut it out. Cut this section out- this phrase this clause excuse me. Joe
gave me this rod and reel. So that makes perfect sense, but if you want to give extra
then you're telling us where Joe lives. Again it's non-essential it's
unnecessary so we could just cut that freeze out and not really lose the
meaning of the sentence. Next let's talk about this C in LUCI- C for combining
sentences we are familiar with fanboys- how we join two independent
clauses together to create a compound sentence. So let's take a look at the
example- I want to go to the score store excuse me
comma but my father will not let me drive myself. So here we are using the b the
but in fanboys, and
we're putting a comma before it. If you take a look here- if we didn't want to
use the comma but, we could just get rid of that but and use a semicolon instead. This
will be the third way to make a compound sentence. So again if you don't want to
use comma but, you can join the two independent clauses together with the a
semicolon. We'll talk a little more about this is a few minutes. Next were are going to talk
about the I in LucI- introductory elements. So the rule is if you're going to add an
introductory phrase or clause, put a comma before it before you go into the
main idea or independent clause. Usually these clauses and phrases in the beginning,
set the table- set the stage for what's to come.
Let's look at the example before you begin comma be sure to read all of the
directions. We're putting a comma here because this literals complex excuse me
This dependent clause is beginning, but then here comes the independent clause. Here's a little
better example of it. It's differentiated by color. So before you begin comma which is
the introductory clause, and then we have be sure to read all of the directions
we have the main clause or the independent clause because it can stand
alone. Now we're going to switch gears. We are going to leave commas and we're gonna go
into semicolons. Semicolons connect if this were an independent clause semicolon and then
another independent clause. Let's take a look at some examples. So semicolons can
related sentences. Here is the example- I shouldn't be driving semicolon
I haven't slept in two days. The big thing to notice here is we have an independent
clause semicolon independent clause so be sure if you're going to use a
semicolon that you have two independent clauses to join them together. Another
way we can use a semicolon is by using a conjunctive adverb. I'll show you an
example but suppose we did not want to just use a semicolon by
itself. We can now join the two independent clauses together by using one of these conjunctive
adverbs. So let's take a look at some examples.
Let's take a look at the first example- Steve loves to dance semicolon
conjunctive adverb which is however comma he is not a good dancer. Again we have
independent clause the conjunctive adverb now not just a semicolon, we've added a
conjunctive adverb, and then we have another independent clause. So if you're
going to if you don't want to just use a semicolon which you could have here- you could
have written Steve loves dance semicolon he is not a good dancer. But they chose to use however
to add clarification to the sentence. So again you can use however comma or get
rid of it and just use a semicolon however make sure that the first
independent clause and the second independent clause have a strong
relationship because your reader will not have however comma if you choose not to
use it as a clue to help them what the relationship between the two independent
clauses is. So one more let's take a look at this one. I drank a lot of water semicolon therefore comma I
have to use the little girls room. Again
independent clause independent clause and we're joining together with a
semicolon, a conjunctive adverb, and a comma. And this is the second way to make a
compound sentence. Remember there are three ways to make a compound sentence.
The first way is comma fanboys. The second way is semicolon conjunctive
adverb comma, and then the third way to make a compound sentence is just to use a
semicolon to join the two independent clauses. So I hope this helps everyone.
I'm pretty sure you're all familiar with this anyway. If not, watch the video again,
text, or email me if you need help. Thanks. Bye