THE
LITTLE GOLD
G
rammar
B
ook
MASTERING THE RULES
THAT UNLOCK THE POWER
OF WRITING
Brandon Royal
Published by Maven Publishing
© 2010 by Brandon Royal
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted
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Published by:
Maven Publishing
4520 Manilla Road, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2G 4B7
www.mavenpublishing.com
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication:
Royal, Brandon
The little gold grammar book : mastering the rules that unlock the
power of writing / by Brandon Royal.
ISBN 978-1-897393-30-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2009909354

Editing I – Tune-up 147
Editing II – Punctuation Highlights 173
American English vs. British English 193
Traditional Writing vs. Digital Writing 201
Selected Bibliography 207
Index 209
About the Author
173
Editing II – Punctuation
Highlights
In spoken English, we can convey our meaning through voice
and body language: waving hands, rolling eyes, raising eyebrows,
stress, rhythm, intonations, pauses, and even repeated sentences.
In written language, we do not have such an arsenal of props; this
is the unenviable job of punctuation. Mastery of punctuation,
along with spelling, requires further review, and is not the focus
of this book. But two key areas — commas and semicolons — are
addressed because they represent areas where some of the most
common punctuation errors occur.
174
THE LITTLE GOLD GRAMMAR BOOK
Commas
It is said that ninety percent of writers can use the comma
correctly seventy-fi ve percent of the time, but only one percent
of writers can use the comma correctly ninety-nine percent of
the time. The comma is often used, but often used incorrectly.
The well-known advice that a comma be used whenever there is
a pause is terribly misleading. Arguably the best way to master
the comma is to think of every comma as fi tting into one of six
categories: listing comma, joining comma, bracketing comma,

off an opening phrase or clause; (3) to set off a closing phrase or
clause; and (4) to set off speech in direct dialogue.
First, bracketing commas set off nonessential (nonrestrictive)
information placed in the middle of a sentence. Such
information (in the form of phrases and clauses) is not essential
to the main idea of the sentence; in fact, we can test this. If after
omitting words the sentence still makes sense, we know these
words are nonessential and optional.
Correct The Tale of Genji, written in the eleventh century,
is considered by literary historians to be the
world’s fi rst novel.
The main idea is that The Tale of Genji is considered to be the
world’s fi rst novel. The intervening phrase, “written in the
eleventh century,” merely introduces additional but nonessential
information.
Correct The old brick house that is painted yellow is now
a historical landmark.
Correct The old brick house at O’Claire Point, which we
visited last year, is now a historical landmark.
176
THE LITTLE GOLD GRAMMAR BOOK
In the fi rst of the two examples above, “that is painted yellow”
defi nes which old brick house the author is discussing. In the
second example, the main point is that the old brick house at
O’Claire Point is now a historical landmark, and the intervening
clause “which we visited last year” merely adds additional but
nonessential information.
The second major use of the bracketing comma is to set
off opening phrases and clauses from the main sentence
(independent clause).

Correct They woke up at 6 a.m., when they heard the
rooster crowing.
Correct They woke up when they heard the rooster
crowing.
The fi rst of the above two sentences contains
a nonessential clause which is bracketed. The
fact that “they woke up at 6 a.m.” is the critical
information. The reason for their waking up is
auxiliary information. However, in the second
sentence, “when they heard the rooster crowing”
is critical information about why they woke up.
This restrictive information is not set off by
commas.
Note: A point of possible confusion occurs when a sentence
ends with a phrase or clause beginning with “which.” For
example, “I like that new brand of coffee, which is now on
sale.” It is common practice to place a comma before “which”
because it is assumed that such closing phrases or clauses are
parenthetical. That is, they do not contain defi ning or essential
information and should therefore be preceded by a comma. It
is also common practice not to place a comma before phrases
or clauses beginning with the word “that” because it is assumed
that such phrases or clauses do contain defi ning or essential
information. However, the question remains, Is a comma
really necessary, especially in this short sentence? One editing
trick is to substitute “that” for “which” in order to edit out the
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THE LITTLE GOLD GRAMMAR BOOK
comma (along with the word “which”). Nonetheless, for those
who prefer to use “which” without the comma (at least in short