From: "Ted White" <twhite8 at cox.net>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Different subject now, you have been warned! [was: Re: [WSFA] Re: Has anyone read any good books lately?]
Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2005 23:42:44 -0500
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike B." <omni at omniphile.com>
To: "WSFA members" <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2005 9:49 PM
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Different subject now, you have been warned! [was: Re: [WSFA] Re: Has anyone read any good books lately?]

> At 06:57 PM 3/28/05 -0500, Ted White wrote:
>
[...]
>
> >(but *the* most common error is the misplacement of
> >commas).
>
> Do you mean to other parts of the sentence or to the wrong side of quote
> marks, or just having them where they don't belong at all according to
the
> writing style books?

All of the above.  Some people use too many commas.  Others don't use
enough.  In dealing with court transcripts I find an inclination for some
deponants to go on and on with hardly a pause for breath, for pages -- all
in one sentence punctuated by an endless number of commas.  It's the job of
the transcriber to accurately put that down in written form.  So I accept
the run-on sentences, which I break up into shorter sentences and then into
separate paragraphs, as appropriate.  The problem, comes with transcribers
who, don't know where the, commas should, go.  [As in that last sentence.]
It's tedious to tinker with *every* sentence of a 200-page transcript.  But
sometimes necessary.

--Ted White