Author Archive
Last time during the explanation on “What is a punctuation“, I mentioned that the uses of commas will be elaborated in a later session and this is exactly what this article is focussed on; so fasten your sealt belts.
What Is A Comma?
→ A comma is a sign or punctuation mark which denotes the shortest pause and the least amount of separation between words, phrases or clauses.
Importance Of Commas
→ The comma is the most frequently used punctuation mark and has an array of uses.
Is this a coincidence, is this a chance?
Of course not! As I previously told you, a punctuation mark helps to translate or convey the exact voice inflexion from spoken to written words. And when anyone talks, there’s always a series of short pauses. Now by definition, a comma marks a short pause.
Now be careful to not overuse commas, that is, do not use too much of it in your sentence. Why? It will spoil the meaning of your sentence and making it confusing for your readers. A sentence with many unecessary commas often leads to several interpretation.
When To Use Commas?
Your common sense and the desire to make your meaning clear, will usually guide you where a pause is needed. Just try to say aloud what you want to write and see for yourself where you make obvious pauses. Everything comes with practice and maturity of your writing skills.
General Uses Of Commas - When Are Commas USed?
1) To separate words in a list or series
E.g:
→ Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Fernando Torres were the top three players nominated for the FIFA world player of the year.
2) To mark off direct speech
E.g:
→ Aliya said, “He’s the handsome I was telling you about the other day.”
3) To mark off or separate expressions like: “however, infact, of course, therefore, after all, indeed, for instance“, from the rest of a sentence
E.g:
→ Indeed, Manchester United won the prestigious title of the world best football club.
→ It was, however, too expensive for our budget.
4) To show Ellipsis
E.g:
→ You may go your way; I, mine.
→ He will soon succeed; you, never.
5) To mark off question tags.
E.g:
→ The new year’s eve was great, isn’t it?
6) To separate short co-ordinate clauses
E.g:
→ Please run upstairs, go to my room, get me my bag.
→ I came, I saw, I conquered.
→ When it rained, we got wet.
7) To mark off nouns in apposition
E.g:
→ Problogger, Darren Rowse, is very much loved and solicited in the blogosphere.
8.) To separate clauses in a compound sentence.
E.g:
→ Mickels Rea was very busy with his first official album, so he did not come to the last Star Academy get-together party.
Pitfalls:
In Complex Sentences, the comma should not be used when the omission of the Relative Clause would make the Principal Clause meaningless or would change its meanings. (Explanation of the red words in a later session)
E.g:
Consider the following sentence:
→ “Shakespeare plays which were written in the years 1604-1609 are all tragic and sombre.”
⇒ Now, if commas marked off the clause as follows:
“Shakespeare plays, which were written in the years 1604-1609, are all tragic and sombre.”
This would completely change the whole meaning of the sentence and would thus convey the main meaning of: “Shakespeare plays are all tragic and sombre.”
Is this what the original sentence wanted to say? No, the original meant that only those written in the years 1604-1609 were tragic.
Got it? So, be careful when using commas.
Last Words..
There are other different ways in which commas are used, but I have brought forward only the most common and important ones. Commas can be used as per your intuition since different people and writers essentially have varied styles - but provided you convey the right meaning without ambiguities. In any case, I would to love to hear your comments below..
Good grammatical construct is one of the pillars of a successful GP paper. Writing correctly also implies the right use of verbs in sentences. When it comes to verbs, some students get confused with the usage of past participles; a common complaint from teachers and examiners alike.
Why Is The Past Participle So Confusing For Students?
The answer to this question perhaps lies in the polymorphic use of the past participle itself. That is, the past participle can be used in several ways namely: nouns, part of a verb, adjectives and adverbs. As you have guessed, past participles have the ability of denoting a complete action.
But you should bear in mind that past participles cannot be used as the main verb of a sentence. And this is where most students fail to anticipate.
Errors At Glance
Consider the following sentence:
1) “The global warming has long been forsee as a known threat to earth.”
2) “This truth cannot be bore any longer.”
What are wrong with the above sentences?
Sentence 1: forsee should have been written as “foreseen”
Sentence 2: bore should have been written as “borne” or “born”
My Opinion On Why Those Mistakes Happen
As per my experience as a gp student and class orator (some 5 years ago) my conclusion as why students make those mistakes are:
1) Student are not aware of the transformation of certain verbs into other tenses like past tense and past participles. (In the case of the “bore” in sentence 2.)
Some verbs have uncommon patterns in the transformation from their present tense into past tense and past particple.
Eg:
* bear -> bore -> borne (or born)
* see -> saw -> seen
* write -> wrote -> written
These ‘weird’ verbs are, I believe, not strongly grasped by students since ‘common’ verbs usually just take ‘ed’ or ‘d’ or just remain the same:
* describe -> described -> described
* arrive -> arrived -> arrived
* read -> read -> read
Advice:
You have to learn and be aware of the different categories of verbs and their different tenses. I remember in my early primary school, we used to learn by heart large table of verbs in all their tenses and this has been a lot of help to me in my later language usage. If you have not been able to do it at that time, do it now!
2) Students are not concentrated enough when writing.
You have to care what you are writing because the examiners do not care to give marks for such foolishness. Examiners are here to give marks, make it easy for them and for yourself!
3) Students write in a haste, thus forcing errors.
This is a fact due to time restrictions. But this is not an excuse! It is your duty and home work to train your writing skills alongside with your writing speed. The examiner does not care if you write quickly or slowly, what they care is ‘what you are writing’ and allocate marks.
So as a general paper student, take a moment to think about what I have explained and help yourself gain good marks. If you have any suggestion or you don’t agree with my point of view, you are free to use the comment form below to express your opinion.
Essay Words With Meaning And Sentences To help You
1) Scalded => burnt by hot liquid or steam
Jirel took the scalded girl to hospital.
2) Spooky => scary
The old house was huge, dusty and spooky.
3) hundle huddle => crowd together
The girls huddled together in fear.
4) shabbily => poorly dressed with worn-out clothes
The old man, lying at the post office, was shabbily dressed.
5) advent => arrival
The advent of the iPhone 3G has created a big craze among youngsters and adults alike.
6) loathe => dislike greatly
Some travellers actually like them while others loathe them.
7) nutritious => high food value
Above all, the daily food you eat may not be nutritious.
8.) dismay => shame consternation
We starred at the teacher in great dismay.
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No Contact Form Is A Big Frustration For Your Visitors
For the last couple of hours, I have been so frustrated to see some reputable web entrepreneur or whatever the “pro-x” they call themselves, they do not have a point of contact. So I have to scan their whole website(s) and blog(s); wasting my time. How can such people don’t have a contact form? That’s so un-pro and lame if you ask me. These guys are at several places and they don’t even provide an easy way to contact them, common what the hell are you doing?
Don’t Make Yourself Sound Like A Moron
I think people who do not provide a contact point are either:
1) too shy or worried when people contact them
2) does not care if people want to say something to them
3) too lazy to provide one
4) considers themselves too much important and hence cannot bother what others need to say - If you fall in this one, I will have to say you are a moron and bias person. The holygrail of an online success is ‘proper networking’ and to network people need to contact you; it is as simple as that.
If you don’t want to sound like any of these type of unhealthy categories, you know what to do.
Sensible Webmasters Will Always Provide A Point Of Contact
And this is also common with several webmasters. If you want to have an online presence, be sure to provide a comfortable and straight-forward way for people to contact you, an example is my contact form. It is visible, easy, simple, direct and fast.
I hope if I have conveyed the message to people reading this - be easily accesible, provide a contact form on your website!
I was just watching the finals of Star Academy (France), the winner is Mickels Rea. And the runner-up is the glamorous Alice (Alice au pays des merveilles - as she has often been attributed to).
It has been a great event, I have been watching them since the very first weeks of the “Star Ac“, as the french calls it. This 8th edition had some wonderful contestants, it was just “sublime”. The event featured many famous star artists for each rounds, namely Céline Dion, Madonna, Ricky Martin, 50cents, Avril Lavigne, Anastacia, Beyonce, Lorie, Jonas Brothers, Craig David, Sheryfa luna, Robyn Rihanna Fenty, Christophe Mae, amongst others.
What Is Star Academy?
Quoted from Wiki:
Star Academy is a French reality tv show produced by the Dutch company Endemol, based on the Spanish format called Operación Triunfo. It consists of a contest of young singers. It spawned an equally successful show in Quebec called Star Académie. It is broadcast on TF1. At the end of each season, selected contestants go on tour around France, Morocco, Switzerland, Belgium, Tunisia, and other French-speaking countries. The contestants stay in the Dammarie-lès-Lys castle : The Vives-Eaux castle. The reality show is hosted by Nikos Aliagas.
Watch The Video Of Star Acedemy 2008 Finals online Now - Star Ac 8
Free Download Of Star Acedemy 2008 Finals With Mickels, Alice And Star Artists Featured
The 2 Finalists Mickels And Alice Work Hard
- Both Mickels and Alice were not expected to be finalists based on their starting performances. I remember that Alice was saved by public voting 5 times! But since then she has been working seriously and she just kept getting better and better, just as Mickels. been watching their daily work on “Canale Evenement” - which gives you live videos of almost ALL the ‘doings’ of contestants, even when they are sleeping.
Anyway, it was a great moment watching Star Academy 2008 for all these weeks (16 weeks?). Seeing their progress and daily nitty-gritty, coupled with the advice of so many experienced artists, it’s just inspiring and motivating - if you can dream it and put in the required effort, you can surely be a winner!
My favorite was infact Anissa, she has a wonderful voice and she’s just gorgeous; ‘tres belle francaise’. 
How about you, have you been watching them, who was your favorite?
