The war for/against Comma 😂😂

Hey there CopyTeller. How are you doing today? Happy Sunday.

Today's email is going to be a dissection of the war between comma and non comma users (this sounds stupid fr fr 😂😂)

This email might be longer than usual because I'll be doing a lot of instances and references.

Here goes…

I saw a Tweet from this guy (with visuals)

The first image read 'I love her, mom". The second one read "I love her mom".

The second sentence clearly meant an entirely different thing from the first. Reason: the lack of comma.

So he raised an argument about why it's not okay to listen to all of them gurus on everything. Blah blah blah.

I immediately saw where he was wrong. He took out the comma and that's it.

But it goes beyond that. Commas are not useless. They give meaning to sentences. You need to change the structure of the sentence if you are going to write without them.

That is what he was missing. He just removed the comma - and didn't bother changing the structure of the sentence.

So that was when I came in.

I told him it goes beyond just taking out the commas.

But he was not having it (I understand actually. It takes strength to admit you're wrong. Especially in public😂)

One of the reasons George talks about not using commas in your writing is for you to think. (Think of how to restructure a sentence to give it the same meaning without the need for a comma)

Did I tell him this? Hell yea!

This is how you know his arguments are baseless…

I told him I could write a whole book without using commas and it'd still make perfect sense.

(Can I do that though? Hell yea. But it’d take time because a lot of creative thinking is involved. Which is why I still write my emails with commas. I’m lazy like that 😊😊).

He disagreed. Not that I care anyway.

Even after telling him that I still use commas in my writing - this guy went to pull up a landing page copy I wrote months ago. Even before started I implementing the no comma thing.

That’s how you know his arguments are baseless.

I don’t give a flying fuck if you use commas in your writing or not. Eddy Quan is one of the writers I read their emails every day. And he uses commas in his emails. Does that make him a bad writer?

My points are:

• It’s not wrong to not use it.

• It goes beyond removing commas. It’s about structure.

I wouldn’t have said anything about this if I wasn’t the next pettiest person I have met (after this guy I know) 😁😁 and because I have a lot of respect for you (copytellers) that’s why I think you deserve an explanation.

One fact though. I got so bored writing this email. Just as I was when I saw he repeatedly tagged me on Twitter.

But anything for you Chikos. 😉

I didn’t use any commas in this email. And it was written in a rush (I wanted to go check out this thrift store I heard about. Yep. I’m cheap like that. There is this local saying “na mumu dey go boutique” I’m a firm believer). 😊😊 

Now imagine I want to write a sales copy or a book without commas. And I have all the time in the world to think and expand my scope of knowledge. Do you think I can or can’t do it?

I’ma leave you with that question cos I really need to go check out that store.

Happy New Month Chiko. 🙂🙂

Copyqueen.