Sunday 22 January 2012

Well I never

I just googled the old parentheical statement and I realise I've been doing it for years without realising it. That's probably because they weren't called that when I was taught English or maybe they were and Mrs Wilkinson forgot to mention it. Either way, I'm still not keen on breaking up the sentence up with dashes. And while I'm on the subject and my high horse I think that "breaking up the sentence" is better than the "setting off the sentence" that the editor chose to use.
Okay, best get down before I get saddle sore.
BTW since the last time I was here Nice has moved on by a mere 200 words or so (who am I kidding? Its more like 100) and I've spent the rest of the time looking into getting a better quote for my car insurance.

5 comments:

Flowerpot said...

I've just googled it too! Good to learn things - thanks Colette. 100 words is still progress and car insurance is so expensive now you need to get quotes...

Anonymous said...

If I have a sentence with a sub-clause that I think goes in parentheses, then I use parentheses. However, I think too many of such sentences can reduce readability, so commas might be better for most cases.

What I very much dislike, is the use of dashes — especially by people who use them without knowing what they're doing — for sub-clauses ;o)

If you have too many commas, due to sub-clauses in sentences, then use the comma police character: the semicolon. People seem afraid to use semicolons these days, but I don't know why.

Colette McCormick said...

FP - 100 words is progreess and i manage dto find a decent quote so its all good.
Captain - I am one of those people that is afraid of the semi colon, mainly because I neer feel confident that I am putting it in the right place.

Anonymous said...

Or, simply break up the sentence. It can make a paragraph more dramatic, read quicker etc.

Hello btw from a lazy would-be writer.

Colette McCormick said...

Hello Steve - I'm all for anything that makes my writing more dramatic. If its any consolation, I'm a bit (lot) of a lazy would be writer myself.