A Comma (or
Its Absence) Can Change a Sentence’s Message
By Mark Nichol - dailywritingtips.com
Writers are divided in opinion about
punctuating introductory words or phrases—and often, they are at war with
themselves with the topic. Even adherents of open punctuation will generally
insert a comma after an adverb, whether it is transitional, like however, or descriptive, like suddenly, and will follow even a brief modifying phrase
such as “according to the study” or “contrary to popular belief” with pausing
punctuation.
But somewhere in between—in the case of a short opening
phrase like “last year” or “in retrospect”—many people believe a comma setting
the phrase off from the sentence’s main clause is unnecessary. For consistency,
I advocate generally using a comma regardless of the phrase’s length, but even
though I am a close-punctuation adherent, I realize there are exceptions.
Consider the use of please, for example. Read this sentence: “Please sit
down.” Now, read this one. “Please, sit down.” Did you read them differently? I
hope so. The intent behind each statement is distinct: “Please sit down” is an
imperative barely tempered by a courtesy term; the person to whom the statement
is delivered is expected to comply. By contrast, “Please, sit down” is an
entreaty; the speaker sincerely hopes that the other person will accept the
invitation.
There’s a difference, too, between “Of course you would say
whatever you thought I wanted to hear” and “Of course, you would say whatever
you thought I wanted to hear.” The first sentence is delivered with some heat;
the speaker’s tone is wounded and derisive. The second statement, by contrast,
is more measured and reflective.
These examples are more subtle than when one decides whether
one should punctuate, for example, “In time you will understand why I acted as
I did”: You either agree with me that if one is to punctuate a more extensive
introductory phrase (“When you have time to reflect, you will understand why I
acted as I did”)—and most writers will choose to do so—it’s only logical to
treat a more concise opening phrase the same way (otherwise, where does one
draw the line?), or you don’t agree. But sometimes, what a sentence
communicates changes with the mere insertion or omission of a comma, and the
writer should be sensitive to such nuances to help the reader read between the
lines.
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