http://myresearchspace.grs.uwa.edu.au/blogs/karenhalls_blog/archive/tags/marking/default.aspxTags: markingenCommunityServer 2.1 SP1 (Build: 61025.2)http://myresearchspace.grs.uwa.edu.au/blogs/karenhalls_blog/archive/2007/05/29/heading-towards-the-light.aspxTue, 29 May 2007 04:43:00 GMT8a7e208b-72ee-48b9-aab7-de231d5a09bf:1638Karen.Hall0http://myresearchspace.grs.uwa.edu.au/blogs/karenhalls_blog/comments/1638.aspxhttp://myresearchspace.grs.uwa.edu.au/blogs/karenhalls_blog/commentrss.aspx?PostID=1638I've been heading towards the light (ie, completing various tasks that having been taking over my life) for the last few weeks - hence my virtual silence and in-person whining. I like the 'light' metaphor, not only because it insinuates the semi-comatose state I've been in at times - almost oversleeping the bus stop when going to pick up my car on Monday was not a good sign! - but also because it is vaguely optimistic. <a href="http://www.limina.arts.uwa.edu.au/current_volume">Volume 13 of Limina has been launched</a>, only one week of teaching left with the marking edging towards done, and maybe someday soon my current chapter will finally link up into coherence. So if you see me wandering around campus looking a little out of it, maybe it means I'm headed for a better place: head down into the final chapter in the semester break.<br><img src="http://myresearchspace.grs.uwa.edu.au/aggbug.aspx?PostID=1638" width="1" height="1">balancefinishing line?markingac(k!)ademiahttp://myresearchspace.grs.uwa.edu.au/blogs/karenhalls_blog/archive/2007/04/04/leave-the-commas-alone.aspxWed, 04 Apr 2007 06:16:00 GMT8a7e208b-72ee-48b9-aab7-de231d5a09bf:1384Karen.Hall2http://myresearchspace.grs.uwa.edu.au/blogs/karenhalls_blog/comments/1384.aspxhttp://myresearchspace.grs.uwa.edu.au/blogs/karenhalls_blog/commentrss.aspx?PostID=1384<p>Yes, it is that time of semester - round one of marking. And while I've come across the usual range of problems - from the inability to write a complete sentence, to not-Earth logic that makes my head hurt, and footnotes and in-text referencing in the same document - the theme for this year is hideously high levels of comma abuse.</p><p>Some basic facts everyone should know about commas:</p><ul><li>They are pretty. That is not an excuse for sprinkling them throughout your writing for no purpose other than ornamentation.</li><li>When you have ten or more commas in a sentence, they are not going to help the reader make sense of your writing. Lose some commas or break up the sentence. Or just don't go there to start with.</li><li>When using commas to insert a clause into a sentence, put the second comma in! Single commas can get lonely!</li><li>Subsituting a comma for a full stop doesn't work.</li><li>Nonetheless, commas do help the reader to understand what the hell you are on about, so use them when they are needed.</li></ul><p>&nbsp;If this keeps up I'm going to start a Royal Society for the Protection of Commas (RSPC) along the lines of the <a href="http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/index.htm" target="_blank">Apostrophe Protection Society</a>.<br>&nbsp;</p><img src="http://myresearchspace.grs.uwa.edu.au/aggbug.aspx?PostID=1384" width="1" height="1">punctuation fetishmarking