Bianka Vega

English 487
May 7, 2015
Rationale
Commas are a very important part of written communication. When
one forgets to use commas, it can greatly affect the content of a sentence.
According to Coelhos text, she writes Some languages use a comma where
English does not. In Russian and German, for example, a comma precedes
all subordinate clauses, so that learners may produce English sentences such
as, I expect, that she will come soon. (131) My book covers the importance
of comma placement in the English language. The first page of my book has
children questioning what commas are. Only one of the children knows what
a comma is and explains the basic rules and concepts. He then says that his
friend, Mr. Comma, can help explain and he shows examples to the reader.
The examples shown give the correct uses of commas, but it also show a
sentence missing a comma and how the lack of a commas can affect the
meaning. The missing commas, not only change the meaning of the
sentence but encourages the students to pay more attention to the lesson by
participating in the classroom activities that the grammar or commas book
present.

The reason I chose to write about commas is because it is a very

common concept in grammar that most people need help with. People, many
times, leave out the commas because they do not know where to place them
in their sentences. In my own experiences in a classroom, I feel that if the
student is given a concept in a fun way, the student will be able to retain the
information better. The pictures in my book point out the mistakes made
when one forgets to use a comma and give the student a visual of how the
meaning changes. When we speak, most of us do not realize where we
pause in our speech but when we are writing, it is very important to account
for these pauses. Obviously, commas are not only used for pauses in writing
but to separate a list of words.
I believe that a project like this can help me in my future career as a
teacher because I had to try to make the subject of commas as interesting as
possible. I want my future students to have fun when learning grammar and
every other subject, so this grammar project was very good practice in
looking for new ways to teach these subjects. I chose this particular form
and content for my book because I believe that it is very important to show
the incorrect and correct way of using the commas side by side because it
shows the students that they need to be very careful when writing and using
commas. This project really helped me be creative when teaching grammar.
By doing this, I know that I can make my students more aware of the
importance of commas when writing. I thought it was important to
communicate with students by beginning my book with visuals, such as the

picture on the first page of kids that come from different countries or
backgrounds. We need to encourage and support our students to participate
in classroom activities by being creative in the classroom. The use of simple
explanations, along with funny pictures can help reduce students stress
level when trying to learn grammar rules.