What can Miley Cyrus' VMA performance teach us about comma rules?

Absolutely nothing. But her song "We Can't Stop" does invite us to consider the effect of sentence structure on an audience. Take these lyrics, for example:

This is our house
This is our rules

And we can't stop
And we won't stop

Can't you see it's we who own the night?
Can't you see it's we who 'bout that life?

Miley uses a series of short, simple sentences with parallel structures. This strategy gets her basic point across clearly and concisely, and it contributes to the relentless rhythm of the song, especially when you factor in the fact that all her words are only one syllable long. Furthermore, the rhetorical questions at the end invite the audience to engage with the song by addressing them directly.

Her choppy sentence structures works well, but only in her particular context (2013 pop music). If Miley were turning these lyrics in as part of, say, her literary analysis of Hamlet for Comp 1000, I would encourage her to vary and lengthen her sentence structures. I would also challenge her to not reuse the same words over and over again because it signals a lack of effort and can be annoying to read. (Get creative, hypothetical Miley!) I would also kindly remind her that contractions (can't, won't, it's, and 'bout) do not belong in academic papers. Academic papers should be professional, and contractions are casual.

So thanks, Miley, not just for searing bear images into our minds we wish we could forget, but for reminding us how important it is to be aware of audience and context when we write.

Cheers,

Gabby