I've written:
(1) Taking action on climate change, is, if anything, the opposite of nimbyism.
But there are other ways I could have written the exact same words, in regards to punctuation:
(2) Taking action on climate change is, if anything, the opposite of nimbyism.
(3) Taking action on climate change, is if anything, the opposite of nimbyism.
The way I read this, the commas just represent where I would put pauses in if I were saying it out loud. For example (2) seems to emphasise the 'taking action' part. Whereas (3) seems to emphasis 'it might not be anything'.
Is there any guidelines or rules surrounding how the usage of commas affects the meaning?
Best Answer
No comma between subject and predicate. You didn't write "The way I, read this." You didn't write, "the commas just, represent". So why do, you want to write "taking, is the opposite"? This, is not the Declaration of Independence. Nowadays nobody, writes like that. Not even in YouTube comments will, you find such punctuation. One and three, are not an option. (And on a more general note, commas, do not "just represent where I, would put pauses".)
If anything is a parenthetical and as such can be offset with a pair of parentheses, a pair of commas, or a pair of dashes (not hyphens). And that is all there is to it.