- A dorky question (and tailored-made, I think, for @bcdreyer.social): I often want to put a comma after an independent clause even if the clause that comes after it is a dependent one—because I hear it in my head as having a pause. What’s the rule there? What’s best practice w/literary fiction?May 7, 2025 18:34
- My husband had a really strong grammatical education (taught by the Jesuits, after all), and I often feel very in the weeds about such things.
- (And yes, I did look up the answer, but I’m curious to know if what I found holds true in the minds of people who work primarily with literature.)
- After reading the example sentence, I’d prefer the straightforward effect created by omitting the grammatically-unnecessary comma before “or.” I’m the sort of reader who would return to the sentence a couple of times before continuing, trying each time to understand why the comma was included. 🤷🏼♀️😉
- Good to know! Thank you. Copyeditors are my heroes.
