Punctuation rules

Could someone help to understand the punctuation rules in this excerpt ?

The man with the rubber boots stepped into the elevator behind me, but I didn't see him at first. I smelled him though--the pungent odor of smoke and cheap wine and life on the street without soap. We were alone as we moved upward, and when I finally glanced over I saw the boots, black and dirty and much too large. A frayed and tattered trench coat fell to his knees. Under it, layers of foul clothing bunched around his midsection, so that he appeared stocky, almost fat. But it wasn't from being well fed; in the wintertime in D.C., the street people wear everything they own, or so it seems.


He was black and aging--his beard and hair were half-gray and hadn't been washed or cut in years. He looked straight ahead through thick sunglasses, thoroughly ignoring me, and making me wonder for a second why, exacdy, I was inspecting him.


Excerpt from The Street Lawyer aa novel by John Grisham.

Thank you.

Where did you find this text (it's important to quote your source) and which parts of the punctuation are confusing you?

Note that the use of "--" is non-standard in BrE.

All commas.

OK, if you're confused by all the commas, why don't you try to rewrite the sentences showing us how you would write them without the commas?

We don't put a space before a comma but we always put a space after a comma.

Is each comma place correct?

enthusiast stud said:

Where are the mistakes ​(no comma required here) and how [STRIKE]to[/STRIKE] can/should I fix them?

The man with the rubber boots stepped into the elevator behind me but I didn't see him at first.

I smelled him (no comma required here) through the pungent odor of smoke (no comma required here) and cheap wine, and life on the street without soap.

We were alone as we moved upward (no comma required here) and, when I finally glanced over, I saw the boots, black and dirty and much too large.

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See above.

Punctuation placement is one of the hardest things about the English language. The simple "rule" is that there is no need to put a comma before "but" (although you must remember that in some circumstances it might be appropriate). Which grammar and punctuation books do you study? Which one told you to put a comma before "but"?

There was a comma before but in the original sentence.(as i found it in the novel)

I studied the blue book of grammar and punctuation (11th Edition) but I couldn't practise them(the rules).

enthusiast stud said:

There was a comma before "but" in the original sentence ([STRIKE]as I found it[/STRIKE] in the novel).

I [STRIKE]studied[/STRIKE] study the blue book of grammar and punctuation (11th Edition) but I [STRIKE]couldn't[/STRIKE] haven't been able to practise them (the rules).

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There are lots of "blue books of grammar and punctuation". The colour of the book is irrelevant. What is the title of the book? When you write the title, remember that you must capitalise the first letter of each word in a title.

As I told you, sometimes a comma before "but" might be appropriate. You cannot apply most rules of English to every possible situation. I don't like the author's use of the comma before "but" in the piece you posted.

It's standard in American English to put a comma before the conjunction when the conjunction links two independent clauses.

I would have punctuated exactly as written.

Note the the double hyphen is used when the em-dash is not readily available. Many people don't know the ascii code to insert one from their keyboard or that you can hold the hyphen key on your iPhone to get an em- or en-dash. - – —

Which book you advise me to study?

I don't advise you to study any particular book at this point. I asked you for the exact title (with correct capitalisation) of the book you currently use.

There is no title except what I have mentioned before(By Jane Starus).Based on your experience which book I should study.

You did not tell us the title of the book. You wrote some uncapitalised words which told us the colour of the book. As I said before, you must capitalise the first letter of each word in a book title. I am not going to give up on this point. Please tell us the name of the book, using correct capitalisation.

I think you are being deliberately obtuse. I gave you 3 opportunities to write the name of the book correctly. I don't care what the name of the book is. I want to know that you can write it correctly.

Thread closed - it is going nowhere.