Comma Usage

Punctuation, one is taught, has a point: to keep up law and order. Punctuation marks are the road signs placed along the highway of our communication -- to control speeds, provide directions and prevent head-on collisions.

1.1 – Compound Sentences

Two or more sentences held together with coordinating conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) form a compound sentence.  A comma must be used before the conjunction.

1.2 – Complex Sentences

Complex sentences contain on complete sentence and at least one fragment of a sentence.  Do not separate these parts with a comma.

1.3 – Compound/Complex Sentences

A compound/complex sentence contains two or more complete thoughts joined with coordinating conjunctions along with at least one sentence fragment.  Compound sentences require commas before the conjunctions.

1.4 – Introductory Elements

Some sentences begin with phrases.  Separate these phrases from the main part of the sentence with a comma.

1.4a – Using Transitional words

            1.4b – Dependent Adverbial Phrases

1.5 – Restrictive Clauses

Some phrases or clauses limit the meaning of the words they are referring to.  Because they are necessary to the meaning of the sentence, they should not be set off with commas.  

When you use who, which, whom, when, or where, decide whether the sentence would be unclear if you omitted it.  If omitting the phrase makes the sentence unclear or changes the meaning, then that part is necessary to the sentence, and you should not use commas.

1.6 – Appositives

An appositive renames the noun or pronoun it follows.  If omitting the appositive would change the meaning of the sentence, then do not set it apart with commas.  If the “renaming” does not change the meaning, then use commas.

1.7 – Parenthetical Comments

Parenthetical comments are those which can be left out but are included to add color or personality to the sentence.

1.8 – Items in a Series

Use a comma to separate words and phrases in a series.  Present usage advocates the use of the comma before and connecting the last two words of a series; some writers, however, prefer to omit the comma before and.  This comma is called the “series comma” or the “Oxford comma.”  When etc. ends a series, it should be preceded and followed by a comma.  Use commas to separate pairs of words in a series.  Use a comma between adjectives preceding a noun when they are coordinate qualifying words.

1.9 – Names

Use a comma to set off inverted names in bibliographies, in indexes, in directories, or in other reference lists.  Use a comma to separate a name from a title or a degree that it follows.  Use a comma to separate a name from a title or degree that follows it.

Do not use a comma to separate compound personal pronouns from the words they emphasize.  Omit the comma when an appositive has become part of the proper name.

1.10 – For similar or identical words

Use a comma to separate similar of identical words standing next to each other, even when the sense or continuity does not seem to require it.

1.11 – In direct quotations

Use a comma to set off direct quotations.  Not that no comma is needed in an indirect quotation.

1.12 – Short Phrases

A comma should follow yes, no, why, well when one of these words is used at the beginning of a sentence.  Use a comma to set off light exclamations.

1.13 – In Addresses

Use a comma to set off a phrase denoting residence or positions but not before ZIP codes.  Omit the comma before the ZIP code number in an address on an envelope; place the number two spaces after the two-letter state abbreviation.

1.14 – In Dates

Use a comma in dates.  A comma may be used to separate the month from the year when the date is omitted; in some current usage, the comma between the month and year is omitted.

1.15 – In Digits

Use a comma to set off figures in groups of more than four digits.

Use a comma to separate two figures or words indicating figures in order to make their meaning clear.

Mystery Story

Write your own Holmes mystery

Using what you have learned about characteristics of a Sherlock Holmes mystery, write your own. It can be a significant mystery (someone stole my car!) or a small one (why do my socks go astray in the dryer?).  It can be funny or serious in tone. As a reminder, include some of the following: 

a. Retelling of an action sequence 
b. Holmes using deductive reasoning 
c. Holmes taking justice into his own hands 
d. Character from a foreign land with a dark past 
e. Holmes unable to solve the case 
f. Exotic murder weapon 
g. Young woman about to be married 
h. Grotesque details 
i. Crime committed

Story Guidelines

– Due dates:  Pre-Write due January 22; Rough Draft due January 29;  Final Draft due February 12

– Essay length:  500 – 900 words (between 2 and 6 pages)

– Rough drafts can be typed or hand-written, but must be double-spaced.

– Final draft format:

– Typed (if this is not possible, please let me know)

– 1 inch margins

– Name and date on the upper right hand corner

– Number the pages on the lower right hand corner

– Title centered above the text of the essay

Sherlock Holmes -- Discussion Group Questions

THE ADVENTURE OF THE SPECKLED BAND

1.    Why has Helen Stoner decided to visit to Sherlock Holmes at that particular time?

2.    Why is Helen Stoner afraid when she comes to see Holmes in “The Adventure of the Speckled Band”?

3.    Why does Holmes quickly suspect that Dr. Roylott is the criminal?

4.    What, if any, significance does Dr. Roylott’s interest in Indian animals have as evidence in solving the mystery?

5.    What does the following statement in “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” mean?

Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another. 

6.    Explain which relevant clues you were able to identify in “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” and which false clues may have led you astray. Did you know how the crime was committed before Holmes explained it in the end? Why or why not?

7.    Which of the five senses (touch, taste, sound, smell, and sight) are used by Sherlock Holmes to solve the mystery of the speckled band? Give details from “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” to support an analysis of the ways in which Holmes uses his sensory abilities to assist him.

THE ADVENTURE OF THE ENGINEER’S THUMB

Answer 3 of the following questions on a separate piece of paper.

1.    What details make the mood of the story spooky?  Find five details that contribute to the mood.  

2.    Do you think that the engineer in this story should have know something illegal was going on at Colonel Stark’s home?  What clues might have led him to this conclusion?

3.    If he did suspect an illegal operation before he agreed to take the job, would that make the engineer at least partly guilty of a crime himself for agreeing to repair the press?

4.    If you had been the engineer at the beginning of the story, needing a job desperately but offered such unusual conditions, what would you have done?

5.    Watson begins the tale by noting that this is not a typical case, for it gives Holmes few opportunities to use his deductive methods of reasoning.  Does the story still meet the requirements of a good detective story?  Why or why not?

VOCABULARY WORK

For each book:

Select 8 words from each short story that are unfamiliar to you.  List them (along with the page number), give any roots, and give a definition that fits with the meaning used in the story.

Sherlock Holmes Quotes

“A Scandal in Bohemia”

·         You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear.

·         It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.

·         To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name.

“The Red-Headed League”

·         I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum routine of everyday life.

·         It is quite a three pipe problem, and I beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes.

 “The Five Orange Pips”

·         A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library...

·         As Cuvier could correctly describe a whole animal by the contemplation of a single bone, so the observer who has thoroughly understood one link in a series of incidents should be able to accurately state all the other ones, both before and after.

·         It is not so impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this, I have endeavoured in my case to do.

·         A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he can get it if he wants it.

“The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle”

·         My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people don't know.

·         On the contrary, Watson, you can see everything. You fail, however, to reason from what you see. You are too timid in drawing your inferences.

·         My name is Sherlock Holmes. It is my business to know what other people don't know.

“The Adventure of the Speckled Band”

·         "You are Holmes, the meddler."
My friend smiled.
"Holmes, the busybody!"
His smile broadened.
"Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!"
Holmes chuckled heartily.

·         "When a doctor does go wrong, he is the first of criminals. He has the nerve and he has the knowledge."

·         Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.

“The Adventure of the Copper Beeches”

·         "Data! Data! Data!" he cried impatiently. "I can't make bricks without clay."

·         The lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.

·         "I am glad of all details," remarked my friend, "whether they seem to you to be relevant or not."

·         "Do you know, Watson," said he, "that it is one of the curses of a mind with a turn like mine that I must look at everything with reference to my own special subject. You look at these scattered houses, and you are impressed by their beauty. I look at them, and the only thought which comes to me is a feeling of their isolation and of the impunity with which crime may be committed there."

Characterization

            Even people who have never read the Sherlock Holmes stories often know something

about his character.  If nothing else, they will associate the line, “Elementary, my dear Watson,” with him, although the literary Holmes never actually put these words together – only his film counterparts say them.  Although Conan Doyle named Holmes for one of his favorite authors, Oliver Wendell Holmes, he imagined Dr. Joseph Bell’s appearance for his hero: around six feet tall, with a thin “razor-like” face, a large nose, like a hawk, and small, sharp eyes.  Interestingly, Conan Doyle said the pictures of Holmes usually depict him as handsomer than he imagined him himself.  Holmes wears dressing gowns inside and a cape with a deerstalker hat outside, and he usually appears with a pipe or a magnifying glass in his hand. 

            Entirely unemotional, Holmes remains aloof, coolly rational, and arrogant.  He is often irritable and he possesses several idiosyncrasies that try the patience of even his longsuffering best friend, Watson.  He clutters his rooms with paperwork from his cases and paraphernalia from his numerous scientific experiments.  Watson complains that he keeps his cigars in the coalscuttle, his tobacco in one of his slippers, and his unanswered letters transfixed to the mantle with a jackknife.  He can play the violin well when he wishes to, but Holmes more often scrapes annoyingly and tunelessly on the strings.  He uses the walls of his home for target practice.  Moody and plagued by boredom when no case demands his attention, he injects a 7% solution of cocaine, a habit that his concerned friend finally helps him break.  

            Holmes possesses exceptional gifts and an encyclopedic knowledge of some areas, but remains willingly ignorant of many others, declaring he would rather not clutter his mind with facts that cannot help him solve his cases, even whether or not the earth travels around the sun.  He is respectful and polite to women, but he insists he would never let himself fall in love and marry, as Watson does.  In some ways Holmes resembles a Romantic hero, standing apart from society and even breaking its laws on occasion to obtain the clues he desires.  He will even allow a proven criminal to go free, insisting that he is not, after all, a policeman.  Holmes also can give the impression that his motives for solving his cases have less to do with combating crime or doing good than with amusing himself or impressing others.  

            In “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” when he finds what he supposes is the dead body of

his client, he cries out in rage and grief – at the black mark now on his reputation: “In order to have my case well rounded and complete,” he exclaims to Watson, “ I have thrown away the life of my client.  It is the greatest blow which has befallen me in my career.”  Interestingly, when Joseph Bell learned of his former student’s claim that he was the great detective’s inspiration, he admitted to only a slight resemblance, writing back to Doyle, “You are yourself Sherlock Holmes.”   Conan Doyle confessed, “…A man cannot spin a character out of his own inner consciousness and make it really life-like unless he has some possibilities of that character within him – which is a dangerous admission for one who has drawn so many villains as I.”

            In appearance at least, Conan Doyle seemed to share more with Dr. John Watson, whom he named after a friend, Dr. James Elmwood Watson, than he did with Holmes.  Like Doyle, Watson is a large, athletic man, wearing a bushy mustache.  Like Doyle, Watson studied medicine at Edinburgh University, and he served his country during wartime also.  He loves sports and has an eye for an attractive lady, and like Doyle, he marries more than once.  Watson is as even-tempered and genial as Holmes is moody and aloof.  Their temperaments make them opposites, but the most striking contrast between Holmes and Watson comes when they work together on a case.  Watson consistently fails when he tries to use his friend’s methods of deduction, and he often complains about how foolish Holmes makes him feel.  In “The Hound of the Baskervilles” Holmes tells Watson, “It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but you are a conductor of light.  Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it.”  Yet Watson recognizes that for all his friend’s arrogance, Holmes needs him, and not just to record his history. 

            In “The Adventure of the Creeping Man” Watson notes, “He was a man of habits, narrow and concentrated habits, and I had become one of them.  As an institution I was like the violin, the shag tobacco, the old black pipe, the index books, and others perhaps less excusable.  When it was a case of active work and a comrade was needed upon whose nerve he could place some reliance, my role was obvious.  But apart from this I had uses.  I was a whetstone for his mind.  I stimulated him.  He liked to think aloud in my presence.  …If I irritated him by a certain methodical slowness in my mentality, that irritation served only to make his own flame-like intuitions and impressions flash up the more vividly and swiftly.  Such was my humble role in our alliance.”  Watson clearly foils Holmes; he is certainly less brilliant, less able, less confident.  But he might be more human, as Doyle himself suggested.

Characteristics of a Detective Story

C. Hugh Holman’s A Handbook to Literature defines a detective story as “a novel or

short story in which a crime, usually a murder – the identity of the perpetrator unknown –

is solved by a detective through a logical assembling and interpretation of palpable

evidence, known as clues.”

            The first detective stories were written by Edgar Allan Poe, and Conan Doyle acknowledged their influence on his writing.  A good detective story generally follows six “unwritten rules.”  

First, the crime must be significant, worthy of the attention it receives.  Most stories involve murder, though Conan Doyle tied the majority of his crimes to greed and theft. 

Second, the detective must be in some way a memorable character.  He or she must be very intelligent, of course, unusually clever and observant, but also quirky, possessing perhaps some odd idiosyncrasies that distinguish him or her.  Kojak’s lollipop, Columbo’s crumpled raincoat, James Bond’s unruffled cool and high-tech gadgets, all of these things make the hero somehow distinct.  

Third, along with an exceptional detective, there must be an outstanding opponent, a criminal clever enough to be a match for the hero.  Solving the crime can’t be too easy. 

Fourth, because a large part of the attraction of a detective story is the opportunity for the reader to try to figure out the solution along with the detective, all suspects of the crime must be introduced early in the story, and

Fifth, all clues the detective discovers must be made available to the reader also. 

Finally, at the end of the story, the solution must seem obvious, logical, possible.  The crime must not have resulted from accident or supernatural intervention, and the detective must be able to explain all aspects of the case in a reasonable way.  A fine detective story should meet each one of these standards. 

Writing 2 Class Spring Syllabus 2015

Week/ Date	Literature	Assign. Due	Writing Due	Grammar Due
Week 1 (1/15)	Introduction to Sherlock Holmes
Week 2 (1/22)	Holmes:  “A Scandal in Bohemia” & “The Red-Headed League”	Answer 4 Questions for “The Red-Headed League”	Mystery Story Pre-Write	Comma:  Sentences Worksheet
Week 3 (1/29)	Holmes: “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” & “The Engineer’s Thumb”	Answer 4 questions for one of the two stories	Mystery Story Rough Draft	Comma:  Intro Elements
Week 4 (2/5)	Holmes:  “The Final Problem” & “The Adventure of the Empty House"	Holmes Final Exam		Comma:  Restrictive Clauses
Week 5 (2/12)	Pushkin (p. 162); Tolstoy (p. 169); Chekhov (p. 26)	2 Short Story Worksheets	Mystery Story Final Draft	Comma:  Appositives & Parenthetical phrases
Week 6 (2/19)	Dickens (p. 45); Wilde (p. 189); Kipling (p.101); Munro (p. 140)	2 Short Story Worksheets	Cause/Effect OR Problem/ Solution Pre-Write	Comma:  Series

Feb. 26 – No CHAT

Week 7 (3/5)	Hawthorne (p. 73); Bierce (p. 10); Poe (p. 156)	2 Short Story Worksheets	Cause/Effect OR Problem/ Solution Rough Draft	Comma:  Interrupters
Week 8 (3/12)	Harte (p. 64); Twain (p. 175) Jewett (p. 87); Crane (p. 34)	2 Short Story Worksheets		Comma: Dates & Addresses
Week 9 (3/19)	Chopin (p. 30); London (p. 122); Mansfield (p. 130); Gilman (p. 50)	2 Short Story Worksheets	Cause/Effect OR Problem/ Solution Final Draft	End Marks & Abbreviations
Week 10 (3/26)	Pirandello (p. 149); de Maupassant (p. 134); Henry  (extra handout)	2 Short Story Worksheets	Evaluation Pre-Write	Colon & Semicolon

April 2 – No CHAT

Week 11 (4/9)	Larsen (p. 110); Anderson (p. 1); Hardy (p. 56)	2 Short Story Worksheets	Evaluation Rough Draft	Italics & Quotations Marks
Week 12 (4/16)	Bradstreet (p. 1); Wheatley (p. 1); Holmes (p. 21); Emerson (p. 4, 5); Longfellow (p. 6 – 10); Whitman (p. 22 – 26); Dickinson (p. 29 – 32)	Poetry worksheet for 3 of the poems.		Hyphens, Parentheses & Dash
Week 13 (4/23)	Wilcox (p. 33); Thayer (p. 34); Dunbar (p. 41 – 43) Frost (p. 44 – 50); Sandburg (p.53 – 54); Williams (p. 60 – 61); Hughes  (p. 75 – 78)	Poetry worksheet for 3 of the poems/ Presentation of poetry recitations.	Evaluation Final Draft	Punctuation Review
Week 14 (4/30)	Poetry Presentation	Poetry worksheet for 3 of the poems. Presentation of poetry recitations.	Re-Write	Grammar Test
Week 15 (5/7)	Poetry Presentation, Final Exam