Words that are necessary must be used

If two essential ingredients in the recipe are left out, do you think the cooking result will be good?





In the HEART & SOUL column of a popular national English daily, the columnist answers readers' questions of personal problems.

Try again so that you can love again, a happier man.

How do you understand the above sentence which is taken from one of the answers?

You will take that the reader is advised to try again so that the reader can love again and be a happier man.

The meaning will be changed if you drop the comma in the sentence: Try again so that you can love again a happier man.

That particular reader is noted to be a man, so the second assumption is not the correct interpretation.

Accordingly the actual sentence should have been, "Try again so that you can love again and be a happier man", which (if originally used) would have saved readers' time in the conjecturing work.

This clearly reaffirms the saying that if writers take more efforts in making their writings easily comprehensible, their readers will need less time to enjoy and appreciate their works.

Since the above also touches on an unwanted comma, it has relevance to my earlier post, "Unwanted comma and word causing problem".