I got the following message about a rejection:
"Slow down, and go sailing." - this comma is unnecessary.
To me both statements are imperative independent clauses. Therefore, the sentence would be run-on without the comma. Someone please illuminate me. If I got this sentence with only a comma or with one an "and" on a paper, I would mark it as a run-on.
Thanks,
Leigh Anne
But that comma was needed to prevent a run-on sentence...
Moderators: Celeste Stewart, Ed, Constant
Re: But that comma was needed to prevent a run-on sentence..
I wouldn't consider it a run-on sentence because it's two halves of one thought. Essentially, it's an imperative in two parts joined by a conjunction. The first part is telling the reader to slow down and the second part is telling them what to do after they slow down. If you break it into two distinct thoughts, then the overall idea changes.
Re: But that comma was needed to prevent a run-on sentence..
Do you mean I need to rephrase it in my mind as something like, "You should 1. slow down and 2. go sailing." That way both verbs go with the "should." I can get my head around that. But how can I avoid this mistake in the future? Is there a brevity rule that applies to independent clauses?
I'm concerned b/c I really want to write for this organization, but I don't want to waste time. Is it too good to be true? I see posts about having accounts suspended. How frequent is this?
Can how I interpret a comma rule get me the boot without any explanation?
Thanks for your help.
I'm concerned b/c I really want to write for this organization, but I don't want to waste time. Is it too good to be true? I see posts about having accounts suspended. How frequent is this?
Can how I interpret a comma rule get me the boot without any explanation?
Thanks for your help.
Re: But that comma was needed to prevent a run-on sentence..
I think you need to understand the market as much as the rules. CC's primary customer base are web articles and blogs. Although the basics rules will always apply, sometimes you need to break or bend some of the rules in order for it to "look" right to the readers, which will largely be Joe Schmuck who found the customer's site through Google. While a sentence may be 100% correct on the technical, you also have to consider subjective measures such as flow. Sometimes, the best thing you can do is grab the nearest non-writer and ask them, "Does this look right?" or "How does this sound?". Some things just don't have hard rules.
As for account suspensions and rejections, it's not as common as it would seem if you just browse the forums. There's a name for it, which I can't remember, but in a nutshell there's a few biases coming into play. Firstly, users that get suspended are more likely to post on the forums about being suspended while the majority of CC writers may never make a forum post at all, so it appears to be a lot more suspended accounts than there actually are - essentially, a "vocal minority". Secondly, you tend to notice the negatives (account suspension) and lump them together because there's nobody saying "My account didn't get suspended today!".
Not to say that CC doesn't suspend more accounts than competing services, but that's because the standards for writing are a bit higher than the mean. There are some people that got suspended for stupid reasons and I don't always agree with the editors, but no place is perfect. Most account suspensions are the result of absolutely horrible writing, repeated carelessness or other major errors. As long as it looks like you proofread (most of the time) and understand the basics of writing web articles, the editors can be surprisingly forgiving. I've had my share of rejections, all of which were eventually accepted on the second or third or even fourth resubmission and I know I bend a lot of grammatical rules. However, at the end of the day it's really about knowing your audience and writing for them. If your Expected Reader can read your article without rereading a sentence because it was confusing or the comma looked odd then you'll do well here.
As for account suspensions and rejections, it's not as common as it would seem if you just browse the forums. There's a name for it, which I can't remember, but in a nutshell there's a few biases coming into play. Firstly, users that get suspended are more likely to post on the forums about being suspended while the majority of CC writers may never make a forum post at all, so it appears to be a lot more suspended accounts than there actually are - essentially, a "vocal minority". Secondly, you tend to notice the negatives (account suspension) and lump them together because there's nobody saying "My account didn't get suspended today!".
Not to say that CC doesn't suspend more accounts than competing services, but that's because the standards for writing are a bit higher than the mean. There are some people that got suspended for stupid reasons and I don't always agree with the editors, but no place is perfect. Most account suspensions are the result of absolutely horrible writing, repeated carelessness or other major errors. As long as it looks like you proofread (most of the time) and understand the basics of writing web articles, the editors can be surprisingly forgiving. I've had my share of rejections, all of which were eventually accepted on the second or third or even fourth resubmission and I know I bend a lot of grammatical rules. However, at the end of the day it's really about knowing your audience and writing for them. If your Expected Reader can read your article without rereading a sentence because it was confusing or the comma looked odd then you'll do well here.
Re: But that comma was needed to prevent a run-on sentence..
Well, that is very comforting. Extremely comforting, even. (See, I can bend rules 
.)
I understand about the customer. I was a technical writer for a while, and we had a customer base that pretty much thought any use of a semi-colon was incorrect. So, we didn't use semicolons. I have since gone back to teaching college freshmen and found that almost every time they use a semi-colon, it is incorrect.
What I'm saying is that customers may have a reason for their biases, and I can work with that. But an unknown editor with whom I can't discuss reasons for corrections scares me a bit. I don't know how to please someone I don't know, and I figured I was writing for the editor rather than the customer.
But I think I understand the scenario better now. Thanks so much. I will keep going....as soon as I finish this textbroker order .
.) I understand about the customer. I was a technical writer for a while, and we had a customer base that pretty much thought any use of a semi-colon was incorrect. So, we didn't use semicolons. I have since gone back to teaching college freshmen and found that almost every time they use a semi-colon, it is incorrect.
What I'm saying is that customers may have a reason for their biases, and I can work with that. But an unknown editor with whom I can't discuss reasons for corrections scares me a bit. I don't know how to please someone I don't know, and I figured I was writing for the editor rather than the customer.
But I think I understand the scenario better now. Thanks so much. I will keep going....as soon as I finish this textbroker order
.Re: But that comma was needed to prevent a run-on sentence..
Well, I just learned something, so I thought I would share.
I saw a similar construction in something I was writing, so I Googled it rather than just reading the Purdue OWL. It seems that two imperatives like that don't get a comma because the "you" is only understood once. That makes it a compound predicate rather than two independent clauses. Cool. I like learning stuff.
I saw a similar construction in something I was writing, so I Googled it rather than just reading the Purdue OWL. It seems that two imperatives like that don't get a comma because the "you" is only understood once. That makes it a compound predicate rather than two independent clauses. Cool. I like learning stuff.