Years back, I was teaching Advanced Calculus to Mathematics and Statistics students of one University, and I also had the chance to "teach or knowledge-share" English grammar with Literature students of another University during that same period under a rather informal arrangement. I had a lot of lessons to learn from the two separate classes, which spelt something like the digital divide we all know of. One thing I have always believed is that "attention to detail" is crucial irrespective of one's technical area of specialization. This brings back memories of excessive - and sometimes reckless - (mis)use of commas in written English, either through omission or commission.
Misuse of commas is very common, especially in newspapers - which sometimes makes me wonder what the role of Editors is. Painfully, the more readers see these things in newspapers, the more they come to accept them as the correct way of doing things.
I will give some examples shortly. But before that, let me emphasize that computer programming syntax (or grammar) gives no room for mistakes, lest you end up with syntax errors. For example, look at the following simple ANSI SQL query:
- SELECT * FROM PATIENT;
If you make a simple mistake and write the following:
- SELECT * FROM PATIENT,
You will not be forgiven because it will be a straight syntax error, and the query won't execute.
In written English, things are rather on the loose. You can easily get away with such mistakes and business will seem to continue as usual. Take the following statement, for example:
- Makerere University, is very famous.
This is obviously very wrong construction and abuse of the use of comma. There should be no comma in the above statement at all. Period! Yet you find such English construction (and lots of it!) in newspapers and written reports every other day.
Now, look at the following:
- Makerere University, located in Kampala, is very famous.
This is correct English construction. The phrase "located in Kampala" is considered passive and has to be delimited by commas as above. I could give several examples, but just one more would suffice.
- The president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, traveled last week. (correct English construction).
- The president of Uganda, traveled last week. (wrong English construction - abuse of comma - simply remove the comma).
I have seen this interesting example which should be able to further drive the point home. Here, I quote from a book which talks about the misuse of commas by comparing the following two phrases:
- Eats, shoots and leaves
and
- Eats shoots and leaves
This is total confusion if you don't pay attention to the presence or absence of the comma. The first case could mean something like:
- Richard Orama eats, then shoots pool, then leaves the place (note that shoot is a verb here).
while the second one could mean:
- Richard Orama eats shoots, then leaves the place (note that shoot is a noun here). OR, it could mean Richard Orama eats shoots and leaves (i.e. he eats both of those things, both of which are nouns here)
Also note that in the first example, we do not know what exactly Richard Orama eats, but in the second one we know that he eats something called "shoots".
I hope we can all see the confusion. One should be extremely careful when deciding whether to add or omit a comma. This decision should be driven by what you mean to convey, but not just for the sake of it.
Just before I pen off, another common example is here:
- Richard Orama said, he is about to complete the project. (Wrong English construction - no comma please - this sounds more or less like a direct local translation).
Generally, as well, a comma can be used to avoid confusion. You will be shocked at how much your written statement will be (mis)interpreted just because you misused a comma. For example, do the following two sentences mean the same thing?
- Inside the house was a perfect match of civilization. (means that there was something available inside the house, and that thing was a perfect match of civilization).
- Inside, the house was a perfect match of civilization. (means that the inside of the house was a perfect match of civilization).
By the way, the semicolon and full colon are equally abused in written English. That will be the subject for another day.
Finally, as a data manager in the HIV/AIDS sector, one might wonder why all this fuss about English grammar. As long as you do some professional work, you will be required to write some kind of report at some point in time. It is important to be equipped with the knowledge of good English grammar .