All right, time to begin the daily with Sylstein here on Anchor. Here we go. Thursday editing. The music is provided by GarageBand.
It's called Park Bench. The intro was watercolor long and watercolor short. And this is Park Bench. We're starting off with The Writer's Devotional, 365 Inspirational Exercises, Ideas, Tips, and Motivations on Writing by author Amy Peters, Week 13.
And we left off on editing. And this is where we'll begin today. Welcome, everyone, to our show. I am Sylstein, or Sylvestein, ready to talk about the editing.
Here we go. And welcome back. We'll begin with a quote by author Oscar Wilde. I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning and took out a comma.
And in the afternoon, in the afternoon, well, comma, I put it back again. Oscar Wilde. He says, or Amy Peters says after this quote in her book, Commas are meant to clarify, but often they are overused and end up making your writing more distracting or complicated. A copy editor I used to work with would tell me over and over again, comma, don't be a comma case.
It's an open quote and closed quote. She was warning me not to terrorize the reader with commas. Keep them to myself. The rules for commas are simple.
You use them when you are making a list that consists of more than two elements. I need, like, for example, I need my shoes, comma, socks, comma, and slippers. And then you close up the quotation. You open it up in the beginning, I need, and then close it up.
And then you use them before dialogue begins. Comma, or I'm sorry, she said, she said, comma, no, Sam, comma, not tonight. And then you close the dialogue tag. Or use them when it ends.
You open the dialogue tag and it says, Susie is so boring, comma, and then you put a, then you, after the comma, you say, her sister told me. And then you close the dialogue tag. Use them before the words and, but, and, comma, but, comma, and, or, when you are joining two independent clauses or when you are starting a sentence with an introductory clause. For example, while I like steak, hamburgers make my stomach turn.
While I like steak, comma, hamburgers make my stomach turn. They surround a clause. For example, Rob, comma, the most handsome man in the room, sauntered toward me. You use them when two adjectives describe the same noun.
For example, honey makes a sweet, comma, sticky mess, period. And that's about it. And that was Thursday editing, using the book by author Amy Peters, The Writer's Devotional, using a quote by author Oscar Wilde. And we'll be back.
This is So ahead, from your rock music, from your little black house, and then they call for it.