The Romance

[Carol]

md:
> 
> The rules of casual conversation are not the same as the rules of grammar for narration. The comma's in dialogue can represent any pause or breath from the speaker, for, example: if I where Snape, I would, have many, many, commas.
>
Carol responds:

What about the distinction between possessives and plurals ("comma's" vs. "commas") or the distinction between "were" and "where" (admittedly not related to comma use)?

I see no reason for additional commas in Snape's speeches, BTW. Alan Rickman does tend to pause a lot, but I'd probably use ellipses rather than commas to indicate those pauses if I wanted them to appear in the dialogue. (Ex . . . pelliarmus!") A comma, as I'm sure you know, is not a breath mark but a means of setting off introductory or parenthetical or nonrestrictive elements in a sentence. (No one would be watching your punctuation, grammar, or spelling if you hadn't presented yourself as an authority on those subjects. All of us make typos and other errors on occasion, and, of course, the "rules" for their usage are more relaxed here than they would be in a classroom--or a carefully edited manuscript.)

Actually, all anyone is asking from you is respect for your fellow posters, especially long-time, well-respected HPfGu members like Siriusly Snapey Susan (who also happens to be a List Elf). Any intelligent reader can interpret what he or she reads without a degree in English, and I speak as someone who taught the subject for eighteen years and has a PhD in literature.

Carol, playing McGonagall to your Draco