#4 Place a comma before a conjunction (and, but, or, while, whereas)
The United States courts got a "guilty" plea out of Polanski for statutory rape, but to avoid sentencing he fled our shores and returned to Europe where for 30 years he has hooked up with many beautiful women. He directed our movie, "The Pianist," wherein a man is chased not by a nightmare but by Nazis.
#5 Independent phrases get a period, a colon, or a semi-colon, not a comma.WRONG: I attended "Inception" so fully accepting the premise that life is but a dream and, therefor, we cannot discern between waking life and dream life that I was bored by how that premise did not just lie under the film, supporting it, but, rather, was used as a sledge hammar, giving rise to more car crashes than I care to remember, that little sphere reminded us that Leonardo got it too in case we didn't remember. It became more a game of "can you tell if this is a dream or not" rather than an opening for us to see that our waking life is a dream. Heavy handed is what I call it.
RIGHT:
I attended "Inception" so fully accepting the premise that life is but a dream and, therefor, we cannot discern between waking life and dream life that I was bored by how that premise did not just lie under the film, supporting it, but, rather, was used as a sledge hammar, giving rise to more car crashes than I care to remember. That little sphere reminded us that Leonardo got it too in case we didn't remember. It became more a game of "can you tell if this is a dream or not" rather than an opening for us to see that our waking life is a dream. Heavy handed is what I call it.
RULE 4 AND 5 TOGETHER
WRONG A premise can convey a story with more elegance. It could be argued that Hitchcock's "Psycho" rests on the premise that we see things in such a way as to preserve our need for order, then the film not only is supported by that premise but allows us to ride it as a great plot unravels atop it and the only one to be hit over the head is Janet Leigh--and all those birds.
RIGHT A premise can convey a story with more elegance. It could be argued that Hitchcock's "Psycho" rests on the premise that we see things in such a way as to preserve our need for order. Then the film not only is supported by that premise, but it allows us to ride it as a great plot unravels atop it. The only one to be hit over the head is Janet Leigh--and all those birds.
