I was telling this story yesterday to a friend who is also majoring in journalism, which brought the complete frustration of it back to my memory.
I was sitting in my editing class a few months ago minding my own business when my professor asked the class the following question:
“Is there any grammar rule you have trouble with that you want me to go over?”
The overwhelming response was, “Commas!” followed by affirmations of “yes,” “exactly” and nodding heads.
I muttered something under my breath and fought the urge to bang my head on the desk in front of me.
Editing is a class for upper-level journalism majors. Most people in the class are juniors or seniors, and you have to pass several core journalism classes to get to this point.
In every journalism class I’ve taken, we spent at least one lecture on commas. Beginning with the first journalism class in the college, there is a five-point deduction for every comma error. If you don’t know how to use commas, those points add up quickly. We are required in these classes to buy books with instructions on how to use various types of commas. Also, I’m pretty sure no UF student first heard the word “comma” in a UF classroom. We’ve been learning grammar rules since elementary school.
Thus, I feel like by this point people should have figured out how to properly use that little curved punctuation mark in their sentences.
It was all I could do not to raise my hand and say, “Please, I’m begging you. Don’t cover commas again. If they don’t get commas now, they won’t ever get it. Just give up now.”
There are much more difficult skills to master in journalism than the comma.
Using commas according to style and grammar rules makes writing cleaner and less distracting to the reader. Commas are important.
I just wish people would try a little harder to learn the rules the first (or second) time.
Note: I have checked this post several times for comma errors. If you find any, feel free to mock me.
