Why do people act like they have to pay for each comma they use?

[NorthSouthcatlady]

I was asked to review some marketing materials where l work and l constructively provided feedback. Boss complained there are now too many commas. Problem was there were none before, literally 3 lines of text and no punctuation at all. I’m dreading the meeting where it’s going to be discussed tomorrow. She’s wrong! My old doctors surgery used to do the same thing

Yanbu

YANBU, I've just proof read a report that was experiencing a severe drought of commas!

I once had to rearrange what I had been told was a paragraph. No, it was a ninety word bloody sentence!

Ha! I feel like a zealous user of commas and sometimes remove some that aren't completely necessary. Sometimes, too many just look very messy.

What kind of marketing materials do you mean? In copywriting, there is sometimes need for artistic license. Commas, full stops, exclamation marks, etc. are often used/deliberately not used for greater, almost artistic, impact.

doctors?

Yup. People are always stingy with commas, but totally binge on apostrophes.

Sometimes for the same reason they type "like" instead of "as if".

Sometimes it doesn't occur to them that punctuation is an aid to comprehension: a lot of people seem to view it as Awkward Rules We Just Have To Learn For No Reason.

Sometimes it's a stylistic choice. We'd have to see the material to pronounce on that, though if it's marketing material three lines might actually be ok.

In my experience of student essays, a lack of commas is rarely the problem. The problem is substituting commas for full stops.

And abusing semi-colons as some sort of really important comma. Ironically, never in the places where it would be appropriate because it was accidentally substituting for a full stop.

Is English their second language maybe? Nobody seems to teach you how to punctuate in another language as if it were all the same. I know no one who was actively taught this.

I over punctuate. Comas, comas for all!

Or paragraph

I give up on some of the really long posts on MN that have no punctuation or paragraphs. It's one of the main principles of marketing to make a piece of writing easy to read by breaking it up. (Yes, I did CIM)

They are mean with commas yet liberal to the Point Of Recklessness with Initial Caps!

because no one wants to sound like William Shatner?

Maybe you’re both wrong, three lines of text should probably be more than one sentence, rather than needing commas.

@LawnFever there were some breaking down of “sentences”. As they were more paragraph sized so yes commas and full stops were needed

@Gilead elements were like that here. I feel your pain!

@DoNotTouchTheWater yep, in other places l have encountered the semi-colon fetish you talk of!

@LawnFever to be fair that wasn’t negatively commented on

You’re going to get a load of people telling you that a) no-one cares about poor SPAG (yes, they do), b) anyone who does care is a tedious pedant (guilty!) and c) what does it matter anyway as long as the gist is there.

It always amazes me how many people think the ability to communicate effectively in writing shouldn’t matter.

OP

You still haven't responded to BaliB (16.41)

I'm a big fan of semi-colons and full stops; commas have their place though, I suppose.

A lot of comma use is down to preference and style; as long as you can justify why a comma is there or why it shouldn't be there, you should be able to persuade your staff member.