comma=because

P2052 at AOL.COM P2052 at AOL.COM
Thu Jan 25 02:46:58 UTC 2001


Some grammar books allow for a comma when two clauses are brief and so
closely related that the second seems to be uttered almost in the same breath
(e.g. He's not a person, he's a monster (p.284, The Little, Brown Handbook,
5th ed. [HarperCollins 1992).  Personally, I prefer a semicolon.

In the example you cite, more than the comma seems to be the problem.  Does
"it" refer to the software or the waiting?  The phrasing indicates that the
referent is the software; logic indicates that it's the waiting.

>Pulliam's example.
"We can probably wait on the software for now, I don't think it will
 be a problem."
                                     PAT
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