Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

 AK>  [...] according to punctuation rules, the gaping comma
 AK>  should be used:

 AK>  "Reading maketh a full man; conference, a ready man;
 AK>  and writing, an exact man."

 AH>  Hmm... nice theory, except that the sentence continues
 AH>  after "exact man" and Bacon uses a number of commas there
 AH>  (https://www.enotes.com).

 AK>  I haven't found there anything on this account.


           Sorry... my mistake.  That's where I found a useful analysis of the
meaning by William Delaney, but not the complete sentence.  What I had in mind
was the expanded quotation I found at https://www.forbes.com/quotes/2933.  :-)



 AH>  I realize.. before you need to ask... why I may suggest
 AH>  you add a comma here or there even though it appears on
 AH>  the surface that I'm not taking my own advice. :-)


 AK>  It's interesting - if you had used "want" instead
                                                 |instead of

 AK>  "suggest" would you add "to" before "add"?


 AK>  "I may want you TO add comma here".


           From a strictly grammatical POV, it would be correct to say "I want
you to add a comma here".  With advanced students, however, I'm much more of a
descriptivist.  I reckon folks like you are capable of deciding for themselves
what to do if they have enough information & I'll gladly contribute some.  :-Q




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)