Is this comma incorrect?
Moderator: Official Reviewer Representatives
- CLightWriter
- Posts: 13
- Joined: 29 May 2021, 14:47
- Currently Reading: My Living Will
- Bookshelf Size: 13
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-clightwriter.html
- Latest Review: A Script For Aspiring Women Leaders by Mark Villareal
Is this comma incorrect?
“The stories were insightful, and so relevant to today's political discussions about the value of immigrants to our country.”
- thereadingfrog
- Posts: 1
- Joined: 11 Jul 2021, 01:01
- Bookshelf Size: 0
-
- Posts: 457
- Joined: 03 Mar 2018, 14:30
- Currently Reading: Worldlines
- Bookshelf Size: 106
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-maggi3.html
- Latest Review: Paper Doll by Caitlin Strommen
-
- Posts: 4
- Joined: 18 Jun 2021, 21:56
- Bookshelf Size: 0
- MrsCatInTheHat
- Posts: 3817
- Joined: 31 May 2016, 11:53
- Favorite Book: Cry the Beloved Country
- Currently Reading:
- Bookshelf Size: 376
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-mrscatinthehat.html
- Latest Review: Marc Marci by Larry G. Goldsmith
- Reading Device: B00JG8GOWU
- Publishing Contest Votes: 0
-
- Posts: 26
- Joined: 22 Feb 2021, 22:12
- Currently Reading: The End of Policing
- Bookshelf Size: 15
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-ephemerai.html
- Latest Review: Final Act by Van Fleisher
I also want to add that there's another way to read this sentence. The words "and so" could be understood as the beginning of a result clause. If that were the case, the correct construction would be: "insightful, and so [they are] relevant to...", but a native speaker might drop the bracketed words, producing a perfectly intelligible but grammatically incorrect construction. The result clause would imply that they are relevant because they are insightful, rather than simply stating that they are both insightful and relevant. In speech, I would be able to differentiate between the conjunctive and adverbial uses of "so" by the speaker's tone. In text, one would need to add a second comma: "insightful, and so, relevant to..." But honestly, if I wanted to indicate that relationship between the modifiers without a full result clause, I'd use a clearer indicator such as "therefore," and then I'd skip the comma: "insightful and therefore relevant to..."