I saw this yesterday on a History Channel program about Skylab.
Problem:
A comma is missing.
Explanation:
The television program was about Skylab.
As the program went to a commercial break, a multi-sentence blurb appeared on the screen, and the narrator read the blurb about Skylab.
One of the sentences was “It crashed in a remote area of Western Australia killing one cow.”
The narrator was smart enough to pause after he said “Australia”; otherwise, the sentence would have sounded odd.
Commas tell readers where to put pauses when speaking a sentence.
“It crashed in a remote area of Western Australia” is a complete sentence on its own, and “killing one cow” is an aside that adds information, so “Australia” should be immediately followed by a comma.
Look at these two sentences:
- Jim hit the man running from the police.
- Jim hit the man, running from the police.
Sentence #1 means that Jim hit the man who was running from the police. In contrast, sentence #2 means that Jim hit the man while Jim was running from the police. See what a difference a comma makes?
Solution:
“It crashed in … Australia, killing one cow.”