{"id":200,"date":"2008-04-12T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-12T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/blog\/2008\/04\/it-crashed-in-australia-killing-one-cow\/"},"modified":"2008-04-12T12:20:38","modified_gmt":"2008-04-12T18:20:38","slug":"it-crashed-in-australia-killing-one-cow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kirkmahoney.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2008\/04\/it-crashed-in-australia-killing-one-cow\/","title":{"rendered":"“It crashed in … Australia killing one cow.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

I saw this yesterday on a History Channel program about Skylab.<\/p>\n

Problem:<\/strong>
\nA comma is missing.<\/p>\n

Explanation:<\/strong>
\nThe television program was about Skylab.<\/p>\n

As the program went to a commercial break, a multi-sentence blurb appeared on the screen, and the narrator read the blurb about Skylab.<\/p>\n

One of the sentences was “It crashed in a remote area of Western Australia killing one cow.”<\/p>\n

The narrator was smart enough to pause after he said “Australia”; otherwise, the sentence would have sounded odd.<\/p>\n

Commas tell readers where to put pauses when speaking a sentence.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

Look at these two sentences:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Jim hit the man running from the police.<\/em><\/li>\n
  2. Jim hit the man, running from the police.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    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?<\/p>\n

    Solution:<\/strong>
    \n“It crashed in … Australia, killing one cow.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commas","category-common-english-blunders"],"yoast_head":"\n"It crashed in ... 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