In Praise of the Humble Comma Essay

In Praise of The Humble Comma examples, and comparisons to God, are apply to convey to the audience the unavoidableness for punctuation mark in the create verbally language. The necessity can be broken down into two different needs, the beginning being the grammatical need, and the other being the emotional need, which will be discussed later. In the beginning of the essay Iyer compares the comma to the gods because they can both bless breath and take it away (1).The gods are said to have created the creation and all of the living creatures on it, including cosmos. As a part of mans creation we were given breath in order to live, and as part of life, it is interpreted away-death. Iyer then returns to his subject, the comma, which he states it be breath itself (1). The comma is the written representation of the short pauses, the quick little breaths, which are taken when people speak.Since the comma represents breath, it gives breath when used, and takes it away when it isnt. S uch an abstract musical theme may seem illogical, but it has validity. Without the comma, every compound, complex, and compound- complex sentence would start too complicated to generalise. The reader wouldnt be able to remark the purpose of a written cypher, and therefore would lose interest. So in a way it could be said that the comma is holding the written language together, constituting why Iyer wrote his essay on it.Iyer uses several examples, both set and indirect, to further illustrate the importance of the comma and to allow his audience to rightfully grasp just how important the comma actually is to writing. He right off compares the comma to a labor of love (9) which can let us hear a voice break or a affection (9). A labor of love is when one does something tedious and time go through with(predicate) for another because they are very important to them and they love them.Writers go through all the rules of grammar, and apply them to their work because they allot about their audience. It is tedious work for them, but they do it because they love their readers, and want them to be able to understand the work in its fullest. This is the emotional necessity that was mentioned earlier. Punctuation allows for the author to care about their audience, and show the audience that they care. The comma is more than a punctuation mark it is the giver of breath the connection between author and audience.