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Americans did not regard writing as a legitimate profession. Here we have two
independent clauses   To be an American writer in this era was extremely forbid-
ding  Americans did not regard writing as a legitimate profession  but we have
made a causal relationship through the subordination of the clause  since there
was a lack of respect of American writers by European critics .
5.2.3 The dangling or misplaced modifier
 Having examined America is in the Heart for the quest for identity, Carlos
Bulosan struggled to fit into American society. Can you tell what is wrong
Sentences 125
Response to 5.2.2
Ï% Can you see how the meaning has been subtly inflected by the alternative
punctuation? How else might the sentence be punctuated? And how
would this give a different emphasis to or relationship between the
elements?
Ï% Take a look at a recent essay of your own. Starting with just one page, see if
you can firstly, identify whether or not your sentences are grammatically
complete, and secondly, whether alternative methods of joining clauses
would inflect the meaning differently. Can you see ways to improve your
sentence structure?
with this sentence? The grammatical confusion contained here relates to the
subject of each clause. The second clause is the independent clause; it could
stand alone as a sentence:  Carlos Bulosan struggled to fit into American
society. In the first clause, it seems that the writer, the student, has examined
the text; the student is the implied subject, but in the second clause
Carlos Bulosan, who wrote the autobiography America is in the Heart, is the
explicit subject. Can you see that they don t match? The first clause is what is
known as the  dangling or  misplaced modifier or participle: it dangles
because it isn t clearly attached to the subject in the sentence s independent
clause. This sentence isn t great but in order to make it at least grammatically
correct and a little clearer to understand it should read:  Having examined
America is in the Heart for the quest for identity, I found that Carlos Bulosan
struggled to fit into American society. Now we know who has examined
the text.
5.3 Errors involving commas
In comparison with the perceived complexities of the colon and semi-colon,
the comma seems like a friendly little punctuation mark that you might
want to rely on when a punctuation mark is called for. In fact, the simplicity
of its appearance belies a set of rules with more variations and possible con-
fusions than the designated purpose of other marks. When I was a student
myself, I was given the enormously misleading advice that commas were like
breathing spaces and should be inserted into sentences at the point where
you would take a pause if you were reading them out loud. This is not
helpful advice and following it did not lead to the accurate punctuation of
my essays.
126 Studying English Literature
5.3.1 The comma splice
This is an error where a comma is used instead of a full stop (period in the US),
semi-colon or co-ordinator. It can happen when writers haven t correctly
identified whether clauses are independent or subordinate. The comma splice
is the name given to the mistaken use of a comma to join two independent
clauses in a sentence without a co-ordinator. Here is an example:  Modernism
is a term that is used to describe a literary era, it is sometimes known as the age
of anxiety. The three correct ways to join independent clauses are:
Ï% full stop/period
 Modernism is a term that is used to describe a literary era. It is sometimes
known as the age of anxiety.
Ï% semi-colon
 Modernism is a term that is used to describe a literary era; it is sometimes
known as the age of anxiety.
Ï% co-ordinator
 Modernism is a term that is used to describe a literary era and it is some-
times known as the age of anxiety.
Alternatively, you could make one of the clauses subordinate and use a con-
junction to connect them, for example:  Although modernism is a term that is
used to describe a literary era, it is sometimes known as the age of anxiety.
Response
What are the stylistic and interpretive implications of the alternatives to the
incorrect sentence? See if there are examples of the comma splice in your own
writing and correct them in any manner that you find meaningful and elegant.
5.3.2 The absence of a comma after an introductory element
An introductory element in a sentence could be a phrase or an individual word.
It is important to segregate it from the rest of the sentence by a comma, so that
your independent clause is clear for your reader to see. Examples of the many
possible one-word introductions are  Finally ,  Indeed ,  Instead , and adjectives [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]