Essential And Nonessential Clauses

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Essential and Nonessential Clauses with Comma Usage The two statements: let’s eat grandma and let’s eat, grandma, have two entirely different meanings; comma usage is not only essential to writing, but it also saves lives and prevents cannibalism. Comma usage is, by far, the most frequent grammatical error made by students when writing; according to Shawnee State University, “out of all the punctuation marks in English, the comma is probably the easiest to misuse” (Anson). Although "pause at the comma" may be a good rule for readers to abide by, it is not a good rule for writers. The rules for comma placement are very complicated. All grammar handbooks provide detailed instructions for comma use. Simon and Schuster’s Handbook for Writers states “Commas are the most frequently used punctuation mark occurring twice as often as all other punctuation marks” (Troyka, and Hesse 432). This fact emphasizes and gives reason to why commas are the most easily misused punctuation mark as well. There are countless lessons given as well as rules for most grammatical situations; one situation that tends to be over-looked is comma use in reference to essential and nonessential clauses, also known as restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses. What is a clause? A clause is a group of words with both a subject and a predicate (Troyka and Hesse 304). There are numerous clauses that are used in writing including, but not limited to: Independent, Dependant, Adverb, Adjective, and Noun. The essential and nonessential clauses tend to give writers more trouble than most others do. These two clauses can be tricky to writers depending on the context in which they are written. The same element in one sentence may be considered essential but when used in a different sentence may be considered nonessential. It is most important to understand exactly what essential and nonessential clauses

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