Hello. I'm a Japanese and I would appreciate it if some kind readers,
especially native English speakers, would help me with the usage of
comma after "over time" when "over time" is used at the beginning of a
sentence.
I wrote "Each environmental activity might be no more than a small dot.
*Over time* this dot will become a line, then the lines will form a
network of corporate-wide activity that will produce enormous
results.". I originally didn't put a comma after "over time", because I
didn't feel I need to, but my collegue (Japanese) insisted that I
should. He said it sounds odd withoug a comma and also said that if
"over time" is used at the middle of a sentence, not the beginning,
leaving out a comma would be acceptable. Are you, especially native
speakers, for or against the use of comma in this particular instance,
and also in general usage? Is there a prescribed rule on the use of
comma after "over time" when "over time" starts a sentence? Or it
totally depends on the sentence or the writer's taste? Thank you very
much for responding to my odd question... This kind of thing is
difficult for non-native English spekaer like me.
Thank you for your help,
Chatran
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