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Niranjan Krishnamurthy Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
Punctuation question
I was reading an article and I had a doubt when I read this sentence:
“I fear for my sanity,” he says. “I’m being instructed to mislead potential employers and spend 35 hours per week – compulsorily – applying for jobs I have no chance of obtaining. Or starve.”
Would it be wrong if the authorI just added a comma before "Or starve" instead of the full stop?
Eg: applying for jobs I have no chance of obtaining,or starve.
What I am asking is if there is a grammatical reason why the full stop was used by the author or it's just a matter of style?
“I fear for my sanity,” he says. “I’m being instructed to mislead potential employers and spend 35 hours per week – compulsorily – applying for jobs I have no chance of obtaining. Or starve.”
Would it be wrong if the authorI just added a comma before "Or starve" instead of the full stop?
Eg: applying for jobs I have no chance of obtaining,or starve.
What I am asking is if there is a grammatical reason why the full stop was used by the author or it's just a matter of style?
Top answer
There is a risk of ambiguity or confusing if the author used a comma. " We can easily see that that isn't the case. " At any rate, we wouldn't want a comma because we have only two items in question (mislead or starve), and we don't separate two items with a comma.
- There is a risk of ambiguity or confusing if the author used a comma.
- " We can easily see that that isn't the case.
- " At any rate, we wouldn't want a comma because we have only two items in question (mislead or starve), and we don't separate two items with a comma.
- "Or starve" should just be connected to the end of the sentence.
- " For literary effect, the author may have made that choice on purpose.
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3 Answers
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There is a risk of ambiguity or confusing if the author used a comma. The words "or starve" would seem to be related to "jobs I have no chance of obtaining." We can easily see that that isn't the case. The author means "mislead potential employers...or starve." It could be clearer if the author inserted "either" before "mislead." At any rate, we wouldn't want a comma because we have only two items
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EnglishmavenMaybe the author wanted emphasis on the word "starve." For literary effect, the author may have made that choice on purpose.I agree. Welcome to English Forums, Niranjan Krishnamurthy. Thank you for registering as a member.
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Yes. That is what I meant when I said the author could have written the way he/she did for literary effect.
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