If you have spoken English since infancy, you probably have a lot of the structures of English built into your head. You don't need me to tell you, for example, how to fix this sentence:
Towel the into the dryer went.
You probably immediately saw that the sentence was backwards (Yoda-speak) and that the word the goes beforetowel, not after it. The normally structured sentence would read:
The towel went into the dryer.
Why do we have to study grammar rules, then, if we know things like this without even thinking? Because not all areas of English are equally obvious. Punctuation, for example, is an area where we often have to fall back on rules instead of relying on, let's just call it "instinct." So in the interest of being able to punctuate correctly, today, I give you the coordinating conjunctions.
A conjunction is a word that joins things. We have several types of conjunctions in English, but the most commonly used are the coordinating conjunctions. They are used to coordinate two or more equally important points or ideas. There are only seven of them. I recommend memorizing them. Here they are:
But, Or, Yet, For, And, Nor, So
I have capitalized them here to facilitate memorization using the mnemonic device BOYFANS (or maybe you like the music of the Backstreet Boys, so you are a BOYS FAN). Either way, I recommend memorizing these seven words. Once you have them memorized, you can make snap decisions about punctuating compound sentences.
A. She went to the grocery store early but they were all out of kale.
B. She went to the grocery store early however they were all out of kale.
Which of these sentences requires a comma, and which requires a semicolon? If you have the seven coordinating conjunctions memorized, you can easily make this decision. Which example is actually two complete sentences joined by one of the seven coordinating conjunctions? If you said A, you'd be correct. Two complete sentences joined by a coordinating conjunction require a comma before the conjunction.
A. She went to the grocery store early, but they were all out of kale.
Try it on your own. My challenge this week is this: which of the following sentences consist of two complete sentences joined by a coordinating conjunction, and where does the comma go in each? Feel free to post your answers below by replying to this post.
- The teacup is on the table but the saucer is on the floor.
- The File menu contains all of the commands for opening, saving, and renaming files.
- The birdfeeder was full of sunflower seeds and corn yet the birds did not come.
- The show featured two major stars so the budget was higher than normal.
- The shadow of the billboard fell across the front windows and darkened the space within.
Also, keep an eye out for these kinds of sentences this week. Happy hunting!
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Jennie teaches two of our writing classes: Writing Training Documents and eLearning Scripts and Writing Effective eLearning Voiceover Scripts.
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