Dreamland Review Archive

Maybe this is love, (T)

An independent clause is the part of a sentence that can stand completely alone and does not require any clarification to make sense.

A dependent clause is the part of a sentence that relies on the independent clause to make sense.

Conjunctions are words that link clauses, such as and, but, as, for, ect.

Introductory phrases are words that introduce a concept, such as so, maybe, even so, ect.

PROBLEM #1: COMMAS BEFORE CONJUNCTIONS

THE RULE: If you have two independent clauses separated by 'and', there is a comma before it. If you have a dependent clause either in front or behind, you don't put the comma before 'and'.

Examples from your book: 

#1: 'It's a Friday morning and instead of sitting in a classroom full of overachievers debating whether or not I truly belonged there, I was here.'

'It's a Friday morning' is completely independent. So is 'Instead of sitting in a classroom full of...' and continued on. Therefore, there should be a comma before and. To find out if a clause is independent, you can try seeing if it makes sense on its own. That is simply a trick--the real rule is if the clause has both a subject and verb, it is independent. Again, that means it can be its own sentence.

#2: 'My old therapist tried and tried for months to get me to talk to her but I never budged.'

Again, there should be a comma before 'but', since both clauses are independent.

PROBLEM #2: COMMAS AFTER INTRODUCTORY PHRASES

THE RULE: Commas after an introductory phrase are widely considered optional. This is stupid. Commas only make sense after specific introductory phrases.

Example from your book: 'Maybe, I was depending on summer for happiness.'

That comma simply just does not make sense there. Commas are considered a pause, and no one pauses after saying 'maybe' there--it is a part of the second clause. This applies to introductory phrases such as 'so' as well. 

However, some introductory phrases often are said with a pause, such as 'even so' and 'eventually'. My made-up example below:

'Even so, I knew he was a liar.'

The trick here is to read these sentences aloud. If you pause after the introductory phrase, put the comma there.

ii. GRAMMAR

You have some grammar slip-ups. Example from your book:

'I was going to ignore him and pray that he eventually got bored and walks away but something in my head reminded me of the words Tracy mentioned today.'

That is incorrect grammar. Here is a possible correction:

'I was going to ignore him and pray that he eventually gets bored and walks away, but something in my head reminds me of the words Tracy mentioned today.'

(Also, this is a subtle tense slip-up as well, which I'll mention later.)

Unfortunately, explaining why your grammar was incorrect here is very difficult for me to do. English was my first language, so I have trouble explaining why the grammar here is wrong. I simply just know. The longer you write, the more apparent these things will come to you as well.