Question about punctuation
Jul. 16th, 2021 01:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaHere is a sentence with three variations in the comma placement:
1) It was not yet noon, and though it was October, Keith thought he might reach Ardroy that same day.
2) It was not yet noon and, though it was October, Keith thought he might reach Ardroy that same day.
3) It was not yet noon, and, though it was October, Keith thought he might reach Ardroy that same day.
I feel like 1) is the most common today and the one I would have used before my current fandom. But the 1925 book I'm writing fic for only uses 2) and 3), so that's what I am now using in my fic. I suppose 2) and 3) do make more sense in a way, because if you remove the phrase "though it was October" with its surrounding commas, you still get a sentence that works, which is not the case in the first one if you remove "and though it was October" with its surrounding commas.
My sample here is just one author, but I do wonder whether 2) and 3) are more old-fashioned ways of using commas?
1) It was not yet noon, and though it was October, Keith thought he might reach Ardroy that same day.
2) It was not yet noon and, though it was October, Keith thought he might reach Ardroy that same day.
3) It was not yet noon, and, though it was October, Keith thought he might reach Ardroy that same day.
I feel like 1) is the most common today and the one I would have used before my current fandom. But the 1925 book I'm writing fic for only uses 2) and 3), so that's what I am now using in my fic. I suppose 2) and 3) do make more sense in a way, because if you remove the phrase "though it was October" with its surrounding commas, you still get a sentence that works, which is not the case in the first one if you remove "and though it was October" with its surrounding commas.
My sample here is just one author, but I do wonder whether 2) and 3) are more old-fashioned ways of using commas?
(no subject)
Date: 2021-07-16 08:20 pm (UTC)My reasoning:
If you're joining two separate independent sentences, you join them with ", and" (or ", but" or whatever), as in #1. It's true that having the qualifying phrase at the start of the second sentence means that technically you'd get #3, but in modern writing, you never put a comma after an independent-clause-joining conjunction. Having too many commas makes sentences disjointed and choppy (so the theory goes), so the one after "and" gets rationalised away because it's easily inferred.
#2 would be correct if it was: "Keith rose early and, though it was October, thought he might reach Ardroy that same day." That is, if it's all one sentence with an aside.
/everything is regional, and there are fashions, and this is just my deeply held belief that no one else has to agree with ;-)
(no subject)
Date: 2021-07-18 03:58 pm (UTC)#2 would be correct if it was: "Keith rose early and, though it was October, thought he might reach Ardroy that same day." That is, if it's all one sentence with an aside.
I had to think a moment before I saw the difference between this sentence and mine! Actually, I wonder if many people would not write "Keith rose early, and though it was October, thought he might reach Ardroy that same day." I would certainly not blink at seeing it if I was reading without thinking about comma placement.