Grammar in Action – Commas with Introductory Elements

A few weeks ago we looked at using commas with introductory elements (and when not to use them). I thought these examples and their counterparts were great examples of those rules.

After the game they headed out to celebrate their win.

After the game was over, they headed out to celebrate their win.


Watching the movie while eating our popcorn, we decided to make this our new Sunday night tradition.

Watching the movie while eating our popcorn IS our Sunday night tradition.

A Dozen Uses for Commas, Part 9

This week, in Part 9 of our comma series, we're going to look at a common misuse of commas. Because we've stressed the importance of using commas between two independent clauses to prevent run-on sentences in your transcripts, it's easy to overuse commas with conjunctions in sentences. However, the important part of the rule is that a commas should precede a conjunction when the clauses on both sides of the conjunction are independent or could stand alone as complete sentences.

Transcribing at home is a privilege and a blessing, and working as an independent contractor is a huge responsibility.

Transcribing at home is a privilege and a blessing. Working as an independent contractor is a huge responsibility.

Because both of these sentences make sense when on their own, we include the comma before the conjunction when joining them together.

On the other hand, sometimes a sentence includes two verbs (or actions) but is what's known as a compound predicate. Without getting too detailed, the bottom line is that the second half of these sentences do not make sense without the first, and therefore there should NOT be a comma between the two verbs or verb phrases.

INCORRECT: I am privileged to work at home, and blessed to have this opportunity.

Because "Blessed to have this opportunity" simply does not make sense when written by itself, the comma in the above example is incorrect and should be omitted.

CORRECT: I am privileged to work at home and blessed to have this opportunity.

A few more examples:

INCORRECT: I work at home as a general transcriptionist, and contract with large transcription companies.

CORRECT: I work at home as a general transcriptionist and contract with large transcription companies.


INCORRECT: I love to eat frozen grapes, and add them to punch.

CORRECT: I love to eat frozen grapes and add them to punch.

A Dozen Uses for Commas, Part 8

This week, as we continue looking at the many uses of commas, we’re focusing on one of the simplest and most common uses: separating the elements of dates, geographical locations, addresses and titles in names. I don't think these need much explanation, so how about a DO and DON'T list instead?

DO:
Phoenix, Arizona
September 1, 2008
1234 Main Street, St. George, UT 84760
Martin Luther King, Jr.

DON'T:
1234 Main Street, Dallas, TX, 75201 (the last comma is unnecessary)
September, 2008

A Dozen Uses for Commas, Part 7

As part of our series on commas, we're look at the many uses of commas as well as some of the places where they should NOT be used. This week we're talking about using commas with coordinative adjectives.

Coordinate adjectives refer to those adjectives which both (or all, when there are more than two) describe the same item and are given equal weight in their description. The order of these adjectives does not affect the meaning and the word "and" could be inserted between them as well. Commas should be used between these coordinative adjectives. For example:

The rough, bumpy, dusty road is the worst part of my husband's commute.

Each of those adjectives describes the road itself, and we could also say "The rough AND bumpy AND dusty road…" or "The bumpy and dusty and rough road…" without changing the meaning of the sentence.

On the other hand, if I refer to "The rough, bumpy gravel road…," I do NOT put a comma between bumpy and gravel because both rough and bumpy are subordinate adjectives used to describe the "gravel road."

Likewise, it's important not to put the comma between the final adjective and the noun itself. In the first example above, you would NOT punctuate it as, "The rough, bumpy, dusty, road is the worst part of my husband's commute," because we don't want to separate the adjective group from the noun it's describing.

A Dozen Uses for Commas, Part 6

Wow, we're halfway through our comma series. We've talked about using commas with conjunctions, serial commas, using commas after introductory elements (and when NOT to use a comma) and setting off nonessential items. (Whew, say that three times fast!)

Today we're going to look at which essential items should NOT be set off by commas.

First, a quick review:

Popcorn, one of my favorite foods, is a great snack.

The italicized portion of sentence does not change the meaning of the sentence and could be omitted, making it a nonessential item.

On the other hand, phrases that start with "that" are essential to the meaning and cannot be set off with commas:

The popcorn that I make is a great snack.

Omitting "that I make" from the sentence changes its meaning and therefore this phrase is essential to the sentence.

An important note here: "that" is often itself an overused word. In cases where the "that" is not explicitly stated, the rule still applies:

The popcorn I make is a great snack.

The popcorn in the kitchen is a great snack.

A Dozen Uses for Commas, Part 5

We've been talking about commas for more than a month, and this week I think it's time to talk about serial commas. Serial commas refer to the use of commas between items in a list, and this is admittedly a controversial topic. (Somehow that sentence makes me laugh. People get worked up over grammar? Oh, wait, I'm one of those people.)

Unfortunately, like the dreaded punctuation-inside-quotes rule, the majority does not seem to be going my way on this one.

Personally, I do NOT put a comma before the conjunction in a series or list:

Today we're going to go for a walk, play a game and take a nap.

To me, a comma implies a *pause*, and I think the conjuction takes the place of that pause in a series.

However, current grammar rules are suggesting that that final comma should be included. I say "current" because the pendulum has swung back and forth on this one several times, and I say "suggesting" because it's not a hard and fast rule.

Transcription Talk includes posts on grammar, getting started, and increasing your productivity.

You should check with your contracts and clients on their preferences, but in my experience, they do not have one except that you be consistent throughout your transcripts regardless of which way you choose.

A Dozen Uses for Commas, Part 4

Last week we talked about using commas with introductory elements (for the rest of the series, click here). As promised, this week we're going to look at when NOT to use them with introductory elements or psuedo-introductory elements.

First, a comma should not be used if the introductory prepositional phrase is less than five words:

Under the pile the one page she was looking for remained hidden.

Over dinner they talked about some work-at-home opportunities.

Secondly, sometimes a phrase may seem like an introductory phrase at first glance (or first listen!), when in fact it's not. The key is to remember never to separate the main subject of the sentence from the verb/action/predicate.

Waking up super early to work is definitely the hardest part of my current schedule.

Waking up super early to work, she needed a cup of coffee to get going.

Do you see the difference between these two sentences? In the first the psuedo-introductory element is actually the subject of the sentence, and it cannot be separated from "is" with a comma. In the second, it's an introductory – and nonessential – element.

Let's look at one more:

Pursuing a career as a work-at-home transcriptionist offers an amazing opportunity for many people.

Pursuing a career as a work-at-home transcriptionist, she was confident that she could earn what she needed to stay home with her kids.

Grammar in Action – Colons

As we covered in the post The Elusive Colon, a colon is used between two sentences when the second sentence is used to explain or illustrate the first. Additionally, if there are two similar sentences following the colon you would capitalize the first word of the sentence that follows the colon. However, if there is only one sentence following the colon you would not capitalize that first word of the second sentence.

Two sentences follow:

He was fully versed in VoiceXML: He studied it. He had a master's from an Ivy League school in the field.

One sentence follows:

He was fully versed in VoiceXML: he studied it.

A Dozen Uses for Commas, Part 3

We've talked about using commas with conjunctions to join independent clauses and setting off nonessential or parenthetical elements in a sentence. Next, as part of our series on commas, we're going to look at using them after introductory clauses, phrases or words at the beginning of sentences.

There is a lot of detailed information in understanding the hows and whys of comma usage with introductory elements, so I'm going to try to simplify it for transcription purposes, but if I oversimplify it and you need more of an explanation, let me know. You can also visit Purdue's Online Writing Lab (OWL) for more details.

First, let's define those introductory elements.

An introductory clause begins with an adverb such as although, because, while, if, etc.

Although she was very tired, she knew that she had to get her work done.

Because he'd always wanted to work at home, he decided to pursue transcription.

An introductory phrase is different than a clause because it doesn't have a separate subject and verb (for example, if you take the adverb off the clauses in italics above, they are complete sentences, making them clauses rather than phrases). These phrases come in a variety of flavors. Without going into the nitty gritty details, the important part of the rule is to use a comma after an introductory phrase that is either five or more words long or is followed by an audible pause when spoken verbally.

Running as fast as she could, she was able to get the ball before it rolled out into the street.

In order to get my work done on time, I had to get up at 3:30 a.m.

Introductory words include "however," "still," "meanwhile," et cetera and provide continuity between sentences.

However, I do love being a WAHM.

Next week, we'll look when not to use a comma with introductory elements and pseudo-introductory elements. In the meantime, test your understanding with this quiz from Purdue's OWL.

Grammar in Action – Commas

Before you read this, I should warn you that I changed the names to Lion King characters in this example. My file wasn't really about Lion King characters. I just wanted to clear that up in case there was any confusion.

He was ranked number three by Rafiki, who was the organization's founder, and Zazu, who was the organization's first secretary general, preceded Mustafah, who was assassinated by Scar and the hyenas in the '90s.

I really did transcribe someone who talked like this. Every. Single. Sentence. It was a long file, but being that it was for one of my favorite clients, I pushed through, taking extra special care with my comma placement. The rules for this particular example can be found in Part 2 of Mandi's series on commas.

Rules for Listing Items

It can be difficult to determine what kind of punctuation to use when the people you're transcribing start listing items or terms at random. Here are a few rules to remember when you run into such circumstances:

• When you are introducing a list it is appropriate to use a colon if the clause preceding the list is a complete independent clause/stand-alone sentence.

Incorrect
To start transcribing you need: a word processor, headphones and a transcription player.

Correct
To start transcribing you need a few software applications and hardware: a transcription player, a word processor and a set of headphones.

• Use semicolons between list items if the items themselves are complete sentences.

If we hurry to the baseball game we can find a good parking spot; we can get there early to get a free bobblehead at the door; and we can get our food and be sitting by the time the first pitch is thrown.

• As Mandi covered in her Demystifying the Semicolon series, semicolons can be used to separate list items that include commas.

We will be driving to and stopping in Austin, Texas; Phoenix, Arizona and Lincoln, Nebraska when we go on vacation in October.

• When people use letters or numerals to list items enclose them in parentheses.

We need to (a) go back to where we started, (b) make sure we didn't drop them on our way out to the car while retracing our steps and (c) keep our eyes peeled for our key chain.

A Dozen Uses for Commas, Part 2

Today is Part 2 in our series on properly using commas. Last week, we talked about using commas with conjunctions to join independent clauses. This week, we're going to talk about using commas to set of nonessential or parenthetical elements of a sentence.

The Online Writing Lab from Purdue University offers these three questions to help you decided whether a word, phrase or clause is essential or nonessential:

1. If the word/phrase/clause is left out, does the sentence still make sense?
2. Does the word/phrase/clause interrupt the flow of the sentence?
3. If you move the word/phrase/clause to different positions within the sentence, does it still make sense?

If you answer yes to one or more of these questions, then the element should be set off by commas like the examples below:

Mr. Magoo, who preferred chocolate to vanilla, declined the cake that the hostess offered him.

The audio seemed clear enough. When she started transcribing it, however, she had trouble making out what the speaker was saying.

Grammar in Action – Question Mark Outside the Quotation Marks

As Mandi covered in her post on properly punctuating quotes, the question mark would go outside the quotation marks in this sentence because the question is the statement preceding the quote and not what is going on inside the quotes.

If you are firm on a decision that the committee doesn’t like they bring out their weapons and say, "Let's go"?

Another thing to point out in this example is the importance of paying attention to what it is you are transcribing. This sentence is a question; however, you needed to be listening to the tone and what the interviewer was really saying to know that. This attention to detail can be one of the things that sets you apart as a great transcriptionist.

A Dozen Uses for Commas, Part 1

Commas are one of the most important – as well as overused and misused – punctuation marks in English grammar. There are dozens of situations that call for commas and an equal number of situations where a comma should not be used. While the use of commas may seem confusing, understanding the actual rules around them eliminates a lot of the ambiguity and provides guidance for making the decision on how to punctuate convuluted sentences.

To start, let's look at using commas with conjunctions to join independent clauses.

Shaina talked about coordinating conjunctions and their role once before. As she mentioned, a comma should be used before a conjunction that joins two independent clauses. As with most of the English language, there are exceptions to this rule, such as when the comma is left out as a matter of style. However, while a comma may be used after "so" at the beginning of a sentence (when it is functioning as an introductory word rather than a conjunction), it is extremely rare to put a comma after coordinating conjunctions.

The following sentences are some examples of properly using commas and coordinating conjunctions:

Transcription Talk is a daily blog for current transcriptionists, and it's a resource for those looking to work at home.

My headphones broke this week, but I was able to exchange them for new ones.

She ate dinner with her family and she took a walk with friends. (Because both sides of the conjunction are equal, the comma can be left off stylistically.)

And after reading through the tutorial, I decided to try it for myself.

So, I think I might try medical transcription after all. (You will need to use your judgement in situations such as these based on the tone of the speaker and the preceding sentence. If the speaker says, for example, "There is a lot of opportunity still in medical transcription. So I think I might try it after all," it's probably best to join the two sentences with a comma and not use a comma after so. However, if she's using it as an introductory word to broach the subject, you would use the comma.)

She had worked all day, so she really didn't feel like accepting additional work.

While it's important to guard against overusing commas, it's also important to guard against underusing them, which results in run-on sentences.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to comma usage, so I hope you'll stick around as we look at some of the other common uses in future posts!

What's In a Name: Capitalizing Those Pesky Titles

Capitalization can be a tricky thing, and it doesn't help that there aren't cut and dry rules for it throughout. However, it can be a useful and valuable tool when transcribing.

A few general rules about when TO capitalize words:

1. The first and last words in the title are ALWAYS capitalized.

2. Capitalize all nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs and subordinate conjunctions.

3. Coordinating conjunctions and prepositions longer than five letters CAN BE capitalized. (This is optional, and these can be lowercase regardless of length if you so choose.)

When NOT TO capitalize words:

1. Lowercase "to" when used with an infinitive.

2. All articles (a, an, the) should be lowercase unless the first or last word in a title.

3. Coordinating conjunctions and prepositions less than five letters should be lowercase. (Again, this is a stylistic difference and can be all lowercase.)

A few things to remember:

* We do capitalize anything that is the first or last word, regardless of the other rules.

* Some words can function in more than one state and should be capitalized appropriately depending on usage. For example, "in" can function as a preposition or as an adverb.

* Google is your friend. If you are looking for a specific title of a book or article, you can probably locate it on Google to check the actual capitalization the author went with. However, sometimes the capitalized titles we transcribe may not exist yet, and these rules are necessary for you to fall back on.

Properly Punctuating Quotes in Your Transcripts

Whether you're transcribing single-speaker monologues, multi-speaker focus groups or anything in between, chances are you've come across speakers quoting other people as they tell stories.

Transcribing quotations brings about two issues. The obvious issue is properly punctuating these quotes, and we'll address that below. However, the other issue that we face as transcriptionists is trying to determine when people switch from quoting someone else to speaking for themselves. While this is always clear in written language, it is not always as clear in verbal communication because speakers will often switch back and forth between a quote and their own voice without a clear indication of which they are using. In these situations, all we can do is use our judgment to determine where exactly the transition is made. I'll be sharing my method for punctuating these sentences in a separate post, as well as using quotes around words or phrases for emphasis, but for now, let's take a look at the basics of punctuating quotes.

First, let’s take a look at the opening of the quotation. In almost all cases, you will set the introductory phrase apart from the quote itself with a comma or, occasionally, a colon:

When she finally finished her file, she said, “Working at home isn’t as easy as I thought it would be.”

Ending the quotation is a little more complicated, but the rules are pretty easy to follow. Periods and commas always go inside the quotation marks. I don’t like this rule and think that they should sometimes be used outside, as in British English, but the rule for American English is clear that they should always be on the inside.

Question marks and exclamation points can go inside or outside of the quotation marks depending on the context of the sentence. If the quote itself is a question/exclamation, then the punctuation goes inside the quotation marks:

She wrote the sentence and then asked, “Is this how you would do it?”

If, however, the statement surrounding the quote is the question/exclamation, then the punctuation should go outside of quotation marks:

What were you thinking when she said, “Transcription is a great opportunity for work-at-home moms”?

Finally, if the statement and the quotation are BOTH questions/exclamations, the punctuation still goes inside of the quotation marks:

What did you say when she asked, “Do you have much free time during the day?”

You can review the rest of our grammar posts here, and please let us know if there's a specific area you think we should address!

Hyphenating Words, Part 3 – Miscellaneous

We've already reviewed hyphenating compound modifiers, as well as prefixes and suffixes. Today we'll finish up this series by talking about miscellaneous instances where hyphens should be utilized.

::Hyphens should be used to denote when a word is spelled out.

• I live at 3087 Rosedale Court, R-O-S-E-D-A-L-E.

::Two-word names of numbers less than one hundred are hyphenated.

• twenty-two

::A "dangling" hyphen is used when separate, consecutive, hyphenated words are connected by the words "and," "to," or "or."

• nineteenth- or twentieth-century antique

::Miscellaneous instances where hyphens are used are dates, phone numbers, and sports scores. It is also occasionally used to hide letters in words, e.g., G-d, and in hyphenated surnames.

Demystifying the Semicolon, Part 3 – When NOT to Use a Semicolon

We've talked about two uses for the semicolon – for joining two sentences in the absence of a conjunction or when a conjunctive adverb is used as well as in lieu of a comma in complex lists – but let's take a look at some examples of when a semicolon should not be used.


Do not use a semicolon when a conjunction is already being used to join two sentences together.

Incorrect:
It was raining; but the sunrise was beautiful.
The humidity in the air was palpatable; and she was not looking forward to running errands.


Semicolons should not be used when one of the parts is not an independent clause (i.e., it can't stand on its own).

Incorrect:
Because it was raining; the sunrise was beautiful.
She was looking forward to the day; even though it was raining.


If in doubt, do not use a semicolon. I believe that, used properly, semicolons can be a powerful tool, but used improperly, they detract from the readability of a transcript.

Hyphenating Words, Part 2 – Prefixes & Suffixes

We've already talked about hyphenating compound modifiers, so this week let's focus on the rules surround hyphenating prefixes and suffixes. There are certain occasions when a hyphen is required when affixing a prefix or a suffix to a base word.

:: A hyphen is required when the base word is a proper adjective.

• un-American
• anti-American
• pre-Raphaelite

:: Hyphens may be used when two words being joined would create a triple consonant.

• bell-like

:: Hyphens are used to distinguish between homographs (words that sound the same but have different meanings).

• re-sent vs. resent
• re-cover vs. recover

:: In many instances, a hyphen is used when doubling a vowel. However, this is definitely one to consult a dictionary on, because there are numerous exceptions.

• de-emphasize
• anti-inflammatory
• intra-articular

Grammar in Action -- Hyphens

Tara graciously covered the subjects of hyphenating compound modifiers here, and this week I came across a wonderful example. First my speaker used a compound modifier before the noun, which I hyphenated without hesitation.

I tried to do a two-year term and get out of it.

Then later he used a modifying phrase after the noun, thus not requiring the hyphen.

Like I said, I was trying to be in the office for the short term rather than the long term, but that didn't really happen.