AAAWWUBBIS.
Huh?
After, Although, As, When, While, Until, Before, Because, If, Since.
If your sentence starts with one of these, you will need a comma somewhere in the sentence.
Did you see what I did there?
A fun way to look at this is to collect sentences that do this well. Anderson gives examples:
- If I stand in a room and no one sees me, it’s like I was never there at all.
- When something is fake, I want it to look that way.
- When you first gave us this assignment, I thought it was lame.
Exception to the rule: When the introductory information is short and the sentence reads clearly, a writer may or may not use the comma. It is a matter of style and clarity. (giggle)
Combining sentences is an effective revision strategy to make writing more concise and connected and can enhance sentence variety.
Tune in tomorrow for some exercise examples and my amusing efforts.
T.A. Henry 