Commas and Ageism

I went through some interesting editorial feedback when I was getting Waking for Hours published. Many of the grammar rules that I had been taught in school —way back between 1975 and 1988— seemed to be regarded as obsolete. Not only was I told to replace the word “alright” with the phrase “all right,” I was told I was using too many commas.

What was particularly striking about this feedback was the suggestion that since I was writing a young adult novel, I should keep the grammar structure simplistic, and that the current vernacular allowed for fewer commas. Too many commas would confuse young adult readers, I was told.

Wait … what?

This feedback, which I foolishly followed, was inherently ageist. It implied that young adult readers would not be able to follow the sentence structure. Yet not using commas in places where they were actually needed would change the meaning of the sentence. If I were speaking, one wouldn’t necessarily “hear” the commas. But the inflection of my speaking would imply their existence and keep the meaning of what I was saying intact. Removing these commas, these visual cues, actually corrupted the meaning.

There were times when I removed commas against my better judgment and times when I left them there in spite of what the editor had suggested. But what struck me the most was the condescending way the editor suggesting formatting reading material for young adults. They even agreed that what I’d learned wasn’t wrong, per se, but that it would be “confusing.” It was as if this editor felt that young adults weren’t able to parse English grammar.

If I do a second edition of Waking for Hours, I’ll correct this feedback and use commas as they should be used to preserve the clarity of what I’d written. And, I’ll be doing the same as I continue to work on the my second and all future books.