Now

The Dogs of Words start many sentences with the word "now." In the old days, in all instances, if a sentence began with "now," students were taught to put a comma after it. Consider these examples:

Now, why did you hit me on my little punkin head?
Now, we must take immediate and decisive action.

The first sentence would not be changed by dropping the word "now." Its use is akin to the words "all right" or a variety of interjections. "Now," by the way, is actually an adverb that is used interjectionally.

The second sentence needs the word "now" to indicate that at this very moment, we must take action.

Many English teachers presently teach that if "now" refers to time, then the comma should not be used, and if the word "now" is simply an unneeded interjection, then it should get a comma.

But there is more.

Merriam Webster considers both examples to refer to time, although it says that the first example is "used with the sense of present time weakened or lost to introduce an important point or indicate a transition."

English teachers seem to be dealing with this situation by removing the comma under all situations. Although that style is not universal, it seems to be growing.

Now whaddaya think of that?
...
Writer's Block? Get ideas for your blog at Get Blog Ideas.