A Bee in My Bonnet - about commas

Once upon a time, I was an English teacher in a primary school but I expect you already know that. It was a subject I loved and I hope I taught the children well. 

Although it was a private school, we followed the National Curriculum and I like to think that, by the time they left in year 6, most of the kids had a pretty good grasp of the fundamentals of reading and writing.

Some of the elements I had to teach amuse me now. I remember how, in the Key Stage 1 SATS writing tasks, extra marks could be gained by using three adjectives in a row or a plethora of adverbs. Things they would have to unlearn if any went on to become authors! Oh, well.

Somewhat surprisingly, it was punctuation that I really loved teaching in the English lessons. I taught every year group and it was rewarding to know that the child who was about to leave the school in Year 6, knowing how to use a semi-colon, was the same one I'd taught to use a full stop in Year 2.

There was something I had a real bee in my bonnet about though. COMMAS.

A little while ago, I met an old pupil of mine. She was now sixteen but told me she still had my voice in her head whenever she did any writing. I asked her why and she told me it was because to teach sentences with two parts, I used to write a sentence on the board and read it out saying the word comma when I came to the symbol. 

When evening came, the moon started to rise.
When evening came comma the moon started to rise.

After reading it, I would then get the children to make up their own sentences and say them in the same way. 

She then said, "Do you remember that lesson called, Cut it Out?"

I did. It was to help them to learn how to use two commas to separate a piece of information in the middle of a sentence. I'd write sentences on the board and then get the kids to shout, "Cut it out!" if the sentence made sense without the part enclosed by the commas. If it did, the sentence was properly punctuated.

This is a sentence that would have the children saying the magic words: 

I left the house and, realising I was late, took the short cut. 

If you cut out 'realising I was late', the sentence still makes sense. Which is why I've been surprised to read sentences punctuated like the one below in novels: 

I left the house, and realising I was late, took the short cut. If you cut out 'and realising I was late', the sentence does not make sense.

It was happening so frequently (in traditionally published novels) that I was beginning to doubt myself. How happy I was then to turn to the 'On Writing' column in the March edition of Writing Magazine and find that writing tutor, Tony Rossiter, had covered this exact subject. With relief, I read the paragraph where he explains that it must always be possible to remove the information between two commas without damaging the sentence. He then uses an example just like mine. Phew - thanks Tony, for saving my sanity.

He also mentions the use of two sentences joined together with a comma instead of a semi-colon - the dreaded comma splice.

It might be better not to get me started on that one!

Do you have any bees in your bonnet about punctuation?