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Pastimes : SI Grammar and Spelling Lab -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RogerWillco who wrote (937)	3/24/1998 6:41:00 PM
From: Jack Clarke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4710

RW, Since you asked... " Commas and I have never had a full understanding of one another and they seem to have a habit of either appearing in places they shouldn't or failing to appear at all," You should have a comma before the "and" of your second clause. The rule is that a comma separates two independent clauses, that is, ones which contain both a subject and verb. Your first clause has subject and verb: (Commas and I have...) The second clause does also: (..they seem...). The second independent clause usually begins with a coordinating conjunction, such as "and", "but", etc. If one clause is independent and the other dependent, you don't use a comma. Examples: 1. He was educated, but he was not a pedant. (subject and verb in both clauses.) 2. He was educated but was not a pedant. (Only subject in second clause, so it is dependent.) Best regards, Jack

To: RogerWillco who wrote (937)	3/24/1998 6:57:00 PM
From: Sowbug	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 4710

As long as you're down, Roger.... ...a blunder which was singled out, much to my embarrassment, in the header post of this thread. "Which" is a descriptive conjunction; "that" is a restrictive conjunction. "That" is more appropriate here, because the "was singled out ... of this thread" portion of your sentence specifies which blunder you're talking about, rather than describing what a blunder is. Compare: I like cats, which drink milk. Suggests that the speaker likes all cats for their milk-drinking ability. I like cats that drink milk. Here, the speaker is limiting his/her feline affection to the milk-drinking ones, implying that he/she doesn't like cats that (not which) are averse to milk. Note that some intelligent, rational people will disagree with me here. Those people are wrong.