3 Cases of Too Many Commas

3 Cases of Too Many Commas 3 Cases of Too Many Commas 3 Cases of Too Many Commas By Mark Nichol This post illustrates several types of sentences that incorporate excessive punctuation. Each example is followed by a discussion and a revision. 1. Much of what happened between the moment Jones sat on a bench to enjoy the view and police opened fire and killed him, has been the subject of contentious debate. A verb is preceded by a comma only when that comma is one of a pair that frames a parenthetical phrase: â€Å"Much of what happened between the moment Jones sat on a bench to enjoy the view and police opened fire and killed him has been the subject of contentious debate.† (An example of the type of exception noted is â€Å"Much of what happened between the moment Jones sat on a bench to enjoy the view and police opened fire and kill him, and why the police reacted the way they did, has been the subject of contentious debate.†) 2. The stakes are high because, without effective management of regulatory risks, organizations are reactive, at best, and noncompliant, at worst, with all of the attendant consequences. The punctuation bracketing the phrases â€Å"at best† and â€Å"at worst† is optional, but because they, in combination with the required commas that set off the sentence’s parenthetical phrase and its subordinate clause, create a cluttered effect, it’s best to omit the discretionary ones: â€Å"The stakes are high because, without effective management of regulatory risks, organizations are reactive at best and noncompliant at worst, with all of the attendant consequences.† (Note that in the case of â€Å"at worst,† only the preceding comma can be deleted, because the one that follows it serves double duty, setting off the subordinate clause as well.) 3. He would replace conservative, Justice Antonin Scalia, who died last month, leaving behind a bitter election-year fight over the future of the court. This sentence is punctuated as if â€Å"Justice Antonin Scalia† is an appositive of conservative- that is, as if the phrase and the word are equivalent to each other- meaning that the parenthetical phrase could be omitted without affecting the validity of the sentence’s grammatical structure. However, the result would be the flawed statement â€Å"He would replace conservative, who died last month, leaving behind a bitter election-year fight over the future of the court.† Conservative is simply part of a descriptor providing additional information about the person named; therefore, no intervening punctuation is necessary: â€Å"He would replace conservative justice Antonin Scalia, who died last month, leaving behind a bitter election-year fight over the future of the court.† (Note that because the descriptor is â€Å"conservative justice,† not simply conservative, justice is not a job title and is therefore not capitalized.) A revision of the sentence that incorporates an appositive and thus validates the parenthetical punctuation, is â€Å"He would replace a conservative justice, Antonin Scalia, who died last month, leaving behind a bitter election-year fight over the future of the court.† (Here, â€Å"Antonin Scalia† - and the framing punctuation- could be omitted without damage to the sentence.) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:30 Synonyms for â€Å"Meeting†11 Writing Exercises to Inspire You and Strengthen Your WritingAffect vs. Effect

The Purpose of a Resume - Resume Tips for Recent Graduates

The Purpose of a Resume - Resume Tips for Recent Graduates This article was originally posted at New Grad Life. A common misconception about resumes is that they are meant to describe what you did in your past jobs. In actuality, the most effective resumes are written from a FUTURE perspective. In other words, your resume will work if you think about what a potential employer would want to know about how you WILL perform. What experience do you have that will make you a contribution to their firm or organization? Photo by Ed Brambley, CC-BY-SA 2.0 If you are writing a resume from the perspective of the FUTURE, here’s what will happen: 1. Measurable Results. You will write detailed bullets that demonstrate your capability to achieve measurable results. That means: include numbers as often as possible. Don’t just say you tutored students; say how many and by how much their grades improved. Don’t say you were successful; tell us exactly what results you achieved. Don’t just say â€Å"increased;† tell us by what percentage. Your readers will imply that you can produce similar results for them. 2. Finding Relevance. You will think about the purpose and priority of each item on your resume. Does it matter that you worked as a bartender if you are now applying for marketing positions? Maybe, if you you were a student working 20 hours/week and still maintained a 3.8 GPA, or if you were the highest-tipped bartender at the establishment. Additionally, bartending demonstrates your ability to multitask and interact with a wide variety of people. But it does not need to take up three lines on your resume, just because it’s what you did; you can make it a short bullet under your â€Å"Education† section to show you were doing it while in school full time. 3. Deleting Irrelevant Items. You will delete anything that is irrelevant or of minimal importance to your future. These things include stuff you did in high school. High school activities are no longer relevant – you had 4 years of college to become who you are now, and if you did less in college than you did in high school, looking into the future, the logical conclusion is that you will do less and less as time goes on. Let us help you look your best on your resume and in all your writing. The Essay Expert provides writing help with LinkedIn profiles, resumes, cover letters, and other writing projects.

US military Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

US military - Essay Example Among the methods used in excluding them was the awarding of low salary. Fortunately, it is evident that the pay of military officers in the U.S. is not varying with gender currently. In the U.S., military is one of the areas that practices fairness in terms of promotions. â€Å"The promotion rates do not distinguish between male and female officers† (Millitary Leadership Diversity Commission, 2010 p.3). In tandem to this, recent studies show that female officers in the Navy, Air Force, as well as the marines have well above average promotions. Unfortunately, their low number in the military may make work think that women are disregarded in terms of promotions. For instance, only 6.8%, 16.4% and 19.1% consist of women in Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force respectively (Women in the Military Statistics, 2013). From this, it is evident that a small number of women get promoted to higher ranks in military. Just like men, women have also leadership positions in the military. This is evidenced by the number of female generals and admirals in the military. For instance, 69 of the 976 (7.1%) generals and admirals are women. â€Å"28 constitute female generals in the Air force, 19 in the Army, one in the Marine Corps and 21 female admirals in the Navy† (CNN Staff,

Development professionals - The BCG Way Case Study

Development professionals - The BCG Way - Case Study Example The process of career development and mentorship processes that are followed in the organisational structure of BCG are innovative and modern.In this part of the case study analysis,the evaluation of the career development and mentorship program will be taken up with due consideration to the processes’ strengths and weaknesses. Strengths of the Career Development and Mentorship Process The promotion system at the BCG’s career development process is not based on a specific tenure but on the basis of a â€Å"time window†. It represents that the employees at BCG gets promoted only when they achieve sufficient amount of knowledge and skill in a particular area of operation. The employees pass through a continuous feedback and consulting session with their respective assigned Career Development Committee (CDC) advisors. The advisors become the mentors of the employees and the employees derive sufficient amount of help from them. As the ratings are done on the basis of various working areas of the employees, there exists an opportunity of improvement in all the operating areas. This is because the employees will continuously try to improve all the working areas for better appreciation. The employees get a chance of excelling in the areas of their choice as they are provided with the option to approach their mentors to get them know their areas of interests. This allows the employees to create interesting mode in their jobs. This is known as the staffing pattern where the scope of becoming a generalist or specialist lies for the employees. Moreover, continuous training process for the newly recruited employees is followed in the BCG that provides a basis for the employees to develop in their skills and socializing nature, create network and expand the sense of BCG as an organization. Besides the assignment of CDC advisors to the employees, mentors are also assigned. The interaction sessions with the mentors are more formal than that with the CDC advisors. Weaknesses of the Career Development and Mentorship Process The promotional process that BCG follows may at times create certain feelings of frustrations among the employees. The frustration can come up due to the pressure of performing the best with no room for failures, as failures might lead to their termination. The BCG employers somewhat try to evaluate their employees’ performance strictly, to ensure that the performance is constantly improving. This is most likely to head a chance of non-believing in the performance feedback system of the company. In the case of staffing, the employees have to be proactive in building their skills as they have to show evidence that they are good at the particular area where they are urged to move. For being proactive, the actual levels of performance might get hampered. Provision of formal training might not always produce fruitful results as the BCG itself believes that â€Å"experience is the best teacher†. At times, it might appear that the time allotted for the formal training has resulted in wastage of time, resources and energy with limited facts. Informal mentorship process might not provide appropriate results as too much of advises around the employees can make him/her confused. Moreover, the

Childhood Obesity in the UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Childhood Obesity in the UK - Essay Example As the discussion highlights  the past several decades indicate that the chances and medical science and technology can help to prevent and oftentimes banish entirely diseases such as rickets, mumps, whooping cough, polio, and a litany of others is profound. However, one of the realities that is been noted within the current time with regards to the health and longevity of the population is with respect to the detrimental effect that obesity has upon the health of those affected by it.This essay discusses that  the situation regarding childhood obesity, in the United Kingdom, is reaching and alarming level. Scholars have indicated that roughly one in three children currently living within the United Kingdom can be considered obese. The obvious problem that exists with regards to this is not necessarily due to the fact that these children are merely obese; rather, the problem that exists is due to the fact that children who suffer from obesity facing exponentially higher risk of d eveloping any number of other diseases. These can include but are not limited to diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and many others.  The issue with childhood obesity, as is oftentimes misunderstood, does not merely go away once the child reaches adulthood. Further studies have indicated that an individual who suffers from childhood obesity is almost invariably going to suffer from adult obesity and likely developed at least one of the prior diseases which a been referenced earlier in this analysis.

Effect of Sucrose Holding Solution on Flower Longevity

Effect of Sucrose Holding Solution on Flower Longevity Vigneshwaree Sabapathy Introduction and Objectives: The industry for cut flowers has become worldwide and its market continues to grow every year (Sheela, 2008). Cut flowers are living organs composed of foliar and floral parts that are harvested and sold for ornamental purposes (Sheela, 2008). Because they are highly perishable commodities, their post-harvest longevity is significant in determining its value. Flower longevity is the time taken for a flower to remain fresh-looking before they start wilting. There are many factors influencing flower longevity including temperature, light, supply of water and carbohydrates, humidity and the presence of plant hormones such as ethylene (Reid, 2009; Reid Jiang, 2012). To control these factors, suitable post-harvest procedures during transportation, packaging and storage should be adopted. One common procedure used is to store cut flowers at low temperatures and in holding solutions containing sugar immediately after cutting (Reid, 2009; Abou El-Ghait et al., 2012). The most commonly used sugar is sucrose. Sucrose supplies the flowers with substrates for respiration and promotes adequate water relations (Elhindi, 2012; Ichimura Hismatsu, 1999). In this experiment, the effects of various concentrations of sucrose on the longevity of roses, orchids and chrysanthemums are observed so as to determine the best holding solution for each of the flowers. Materials Method: Plastic beakers were used to prepare five different holding solutions. Of the five beakers, four had 0%, 5%, 10% and 15% concentration of sucrose solution respectively and the remaining one had tap water. Tap water was used to prepare the sucrose holding solutions into which 2 teaspoons of vinegar were added to every 1L of solution. In total, 10 stalks each of roses, orchids and chrysanthemums were obtained. Two stalks of each type of flower ware placed in each of the five holding solutions. Approximately 5cm from the edge of the stalks were then cut using scissors while the stalks were immersed in their respective holding solutions. Once this was done, the beakers of flowers were placed in a room and the number of days taken for all floral organs to wilt was recorded over a two week period. Within this period, the holding solutions were changed every week. OBSERVATION! Results: Three different species of flowers (roses, orchids and chrysanthemums) were placed in five different holding solutions with varying concentrations of sucrose and the number of days taken for all floral organs to wilt in each holding solution was recorded. The results obtained are illustrated in the Table below. Table 1: Number of days required for the various species of cut flowers to wilt in different holding solutions. Figure 1: Graph showing the number of days for the roses, chrysanthemums and orchids to wilt in the different holding solutions. Based on both Table 1 and Figure 1, it is seen that roses wilted at a faster rate as compared to the chrysanthemums and orchids in all five holding solutions. The roses placed in the 0% sucrose holding solution wilted the fastest, 7 days after the start of the experiment. The roses in 10% sucrose then wilted by the 8th day, followed by 5% sucrose and tap water on the 9th day and finally 15% sucrose on the 11th day. As for the chrysanthemums, those left in tap water and in 0% sucrose holding solution wilted by the 13th day. On the other hand, those in the 5%, 10% and 15% sucrose holding solutions had not begun to wilt by the end of the 14 day experimental period. For the orchids, those placed in tap water and 0% sucrose wilted on the 14th day while those in the 5%, 10% and 15% sucrose holding solution did not exhibit any signs of wilting by the end of the 14th day. From these results, it can be seen that the orchid has the highest longevity followed by chrysanthemum and finally the rose. Furthermore from the five different holding solutions, the one with 15% sucrose is more effective, with the least effective being the 0% sucrose holding solution. As the flowers wilted, discoloration of the petals and drooping of both flowers and leaves were first observed. Afterwards, the petals of the flowers began browning at the edges and eventually as wilting progresses, the entire petal turned brown. This was apparent in both the roses and chrysanthemums but less so in orchids. In the final stages of wilting, the flowers became dry and crisp. Discussion: Physiological changes that lead to early wilting is caused by the inability of the flower to maintain photosynthesis due to diminishing sugar stored in the stem and petals (Jowkar Salehi, 2006). Another reason is the formation of emboli and bacterial plug at the base of the stem during cutting that leads to reduction in water uptake (Van Meetern et al., 2001; Reid, 2012). To overcome this, stems are cut once again under water as done in this experiment (Reid, 2009). To delay the wilting process, a post-harvest procedure that involves placing the cut flowers in a holding solution containing water to preserve turgidity, sucrose and an acidifying agent such as vinegar is carried out (Sheela, 2008; Reid, 2009). Sucrose functions as a source of energy that provides additional substrates to the flowers for respiration (Pun Ichimura, 2003). An increase in respiration rate, increases flower longevity. Sucrose also promotes bud opening of cut flowers such as roses by supplying food for petal expansion (Pun Ichimura, 2003). Furthermore, low concentrations of sucrose help maintain water balance in flowers. Sucrose decreases water loss in rose petals and increases the uptake of water, by inducing the closure of stomata and increasing the osmotic concentration of the flowers respectively (Elhindi, 2012; Pun Ichimura, 2003). The concentration of sucrose to be used differs depending on the species of flowers being treated and often ranges between 5 to 20% ( Nenguwo, 1998). Vinegar in the holding solution reduces the pH to 3 or 4 so as to encourage the uptake of water since water with a low pH is easily taken up by the stem as compared to water with a higher pH (Clark et al., 2010). Acidifying the holding solution with vinegar also reduces the growth of bacteria and removes minerals in the solution that interferes with water uptake (Nenguwo, 1998; Clark et al., 2010). Between the three types of flowers, it was found that roses had the shortest flower longevity, with a recorded maximum longevity of 11 days in 15% sucrose holding solution. The short vase life of roses is caused by water stress as a result of a quick loss in fresh weight, incomplete opening of the bud and the inability to maintain turgidity (Thwala et al., 2013). Roses tend to lose more water as compared to other flowers because of its petals being thinner and having a larger surface area (Jones, 2001). In addition, inadequate transport of water through the neck of the flower causes it to droop (Thwala et al., 2013). As the loss of water continues without being replaced, the flower begins to wilt and eventually drops off. Aside from water stress, the plant hormone ethylene causes the early wilting of roses. Rose cultivars that give of fragrances, produces more of the plant hormone ethylene. Being sensitive to this hormone, premature wilting and the failure of bud opening occurs (Jone s, 2001). Based on Figure 1, chrysanthemums placed in tap water and 0% sucrose wilted by the 13th day while the others took more than 14 days to wilt. This shows that chrysanthemums have longer flower longevity than roses. One reason for this is because unlike roses, chrysanthemums are relatively insensitive to ethylene (Jones, 2001). Another reason is that despite having thin petals, it has a smaller petal area and so less water is loss. The shorter flower longevity in tap water and 0% sucrose holding solution as compared to the other holding solutions suggest that the presence of sucrose does increase the vase life of chrysanthemums. Like chrysanthemums, the rate of water loss in orchids is considerably low. This may be due to the fact that even though they have large petal areas, their petals are thicker than that of roses and chrysanthemums. Additionally, unlike in roses, the orchid stems lack supporting leaves and because of this the orchid has greater flower longevity as seen in this experiment (Thwala et al., 2013). One other reason for their flowers being long-lived is because they have low pollination rate and specialized pollination systems which causes them to be pollen-limited (Abdala-Roberts et al., 2007). As a result, the senescence of flowers in orchids is linked and tightly controlled by pollination. After comparing the effects of the five holding solutions on longevity, the 15% sucrose holding solution demonstrated the most prolonged longevity in all three flower types. The high concentration of sucrose in this solution means that it is able to provide sufficient nutrients for flower maintenance. Conclusion: Flower longevity is dependent on a number of external factors such as temperature, carbohydrate and water supply, light and the plant growth regulators. Therefore, the addition of acid such as vinegar and sucrose are used to help in prolonging the vase-life of cut flowers. From the results of the experiment conducted, it can be concluded that the 15% sucrose solution acidified with vinegar is the most ideal to be used as a holding solution for cut flowers. In addition, it was found that chrysanthemums and orchids have similar flower longevity which is much longer than that of the rose. This may be due to differences in ethylene sensitivity and regulation of senescence and wilting. Since cut flowers are one of the most perishable commodities, conducting this experiment helps florist determine the most suitable holding solution to prolong flower longevity for a particular cut flower.

Essay --

As the crowd begins their chants and anthems, the teams take their places upon the pitch. The ground is shaking underneath you and smoking flares are lighting up around the stadium. Welcome to the world of football. Soccer has become a way of life for many and an escape from reality. It is the game for any class and will steal your heart with the art that comes with it. Soccer isn’t just a sport, it is a religion many follow, but most importantly it brings masses around the world together. We call this, the Beautiful Game. If this claims to be the most popular sport around the world, why is soccer not considered a big sport and why has it never caught on in America? Finally, we have reached the age to play sports, but what sport would be the best? Many kids turn to baseball and football because these are America’s past time sport, but there is always a select few that choose soccer. Why, because their parents force them to play. Soccer, in a parents point of view, is seen as a safe exercise sport, you can make friends and most important, get outside. At such a young age, kids have never been the best at following directions, which leads to chaos on the field. Kids swarm around the ball wishing for the chance to kick the ball a couple of times. In all truth, â€Å"Kids don't grow up wanting to watch tag on TV, or be a professional tag player, and that's really how most kids who play it view soccer. It's fun, its outdoors and it involves running around, but that's about it† (Emen). Besides the fact of parents forcing soccer down the kids throat, they get the image that soccer will forever be a disorganized sport, which in all truth can be at some points. The main reason for this is because in America, we were never taught how to play s... ...y with rocks as the goals and a bundle of socks as the ball. Soccer will make your heart break when your team drops into relegation and make you be in ecstasy when your nation wins the World Cup. Soccer is a game where it would take time to learn and accept the game. There are many rules to understand and heartbreaks to endure. But if we looked at the game as a whole, we would understand that the game is truly like all others. It’s a game that binds people together and brings peace to parts of the world. For many it is a way of life, and people go to their church, temple or mosque every Saturday or Sunday and even during the week. If Americans gave this game a chance, it would possibly become the most popular game in every nation. But until then, Soccer will need to take time to catch on. Only then can the world most popular sport truly become the Beautiful Game.