re Question of clarity

Subject: re Question of clarity
From: "Mark L. Levinson" <mark -at- MEMCO -dot- CO -dot- IL>
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 1999 15:41:04 +0200

Melissa's got:
>From the Plant Menu, select (13) for Work with Whatever, and press Enter.

** The reader will expect the phrase "From the Plant Menu" to
modify all the rest of the sentence unless otherwise signalled.
The comma after the introductory phrase says "I'm going to keep
modifying this sentence until something stronger than a comma stops
me." Because the second comma is not enough to signal an end to
the effect of the introductory phrase, the sentence reads as if
it meant that you should also press Enter from the Plant Menu.

Instead of the second comma, you could use a semicolon; but
because semicolons are fairly rare these days, they could
be distracting. A separate sentence would be more acceptable:
"From the Plant Menu, select (13) for Work with Whatever. Then
press Enter."

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