"Common sense alone can teach you when to use a comma."

[Hannahs4]

It could have three settings:

Beginner: Emits a gentle buzzing sound like a rattlesnake.

Advanced: Buzzes and then snaps if one doesn't erase fast enough.

Learn-to-write-you-bonehead: No buzz and you deserve what you got!

A grammar shock collar, get a patent quick!

[BlsdMama]

Absolutely disagree. The perfect example is kids that struggle with prosody in language. You will see them struggle like no other and it isn't that they lack common sense.

 

All grammar nazis should be jolted with a taser. I say this and I was once one of their own kind.

[JoJosMom]

I believe that statement is true.

 

However, I also believe that if sense were common, more people would have it. Hence the need for grammar nazis.

 

I voted "no," but I see your point, Your Majesty.

 

Have you been stalking the Ignore thread? There's a couple of pages dedicated to comma usage there.

 

I came on this thread just to see what Ellie would say.

 

I use commas, whenever. I haven't been docked points for my graduate papers for usage, but it may be because they don't know any better than I do. For example, in the first sentence of this paragraph I probably should have used ellipses instead of a comma.

 

Me, two.

 

{Howdy, Ellie!   :seeya: Alright, it's time for me to be serious….}

 

I'd disagree with that statement.  I've encountered far too many people (college students, primarily) who are well-read and highly intelligent, but are simply lost navigating the world of commas.  

 

In my own case, I've just developed a feel for them (having never been taught "comma rules"). Languages are my strength, though; my brain is wired to pick up on such patterns fairly effortlessly.  I certainly wouldn't want to equate that with "common sense" any more than I would want someone to suggest that, say, statistical analysis or probability or abstract art is common sense. They certainly aren't to me.  And though the rules of grammar are undoubtedly a huge step in the right direction when it comes to comma-usage,  I have a hunch that rules alone wouldn't necessarily help the most comma-challenged minds among us. There is something of an art to using them, too.  

 

{Now, enough of being serious.  I'm heading back over to the mindless drivel at the Bizarro-World-Ignore-This-Thread thread.}

 

:seeya: Hurry back!  Some of us just aren't cut out for all this intellectualism.

 

You mean you didn't take the time to read all 28 pages?  It's a goldmine of classical brilliance.  You really must read it if you want your children to succeed in the world.   :D

 

Oh, yeah, that's right.  Classical brilliance. Thanks for reminding me.