Commas: a quick review

The four fundamental rules revisited

Comma rule #1

Sentence sentence.coordinate conjunction

• Henry ran into the Golden Gallon, and he bought a pint of eggnog.

• Jessica finished her homework, and then she called home.

,

Note that two conditions apply:

1) the conjunction is a coordinate one

2) there is an independent clause on either side.

Condition #1:

The two elements are joined by coordinate conjunctions:forandnorbutoryetso

Notice the acronym: fanboys

These words are NOT NOT coordinate conjunctions:thenhoweveralthoughetc.

Thus, these sentences are comma splices:

•Ross and Steven went to a movie, then they played video games

•Tonya and Ursula wanted to go, however their parents didn’t approve.

Condition #2:

If the two elements joined by the coordinate conjunction are not sentences (independent clauses), then a comma is unnecessary:

• Victor washed the dishes, and then finished his

homework.

• Alfred admired Winifred, who was new to the school,

and who had a beautiful speaking voice. (The first comma

is necessary but not the second.)

•Beatrice wanted to attend the dance, and to go to the

soccer tournament as well.

Comma rule #2

item #1

• Katie hurried home from school, took a quick shower, and drove to the concert.

• Leroy brought his books, his writing implements, and his calculator to the exam.

,, item #2 item #3and

Should there be a comma before the conjunction?

It depends on your audience.

If you are writing for a newspaper, abide by journalistic conventions and omit the comma. Otherwise, include the comma for the sake of clarity.

Writing for a newspaper:

• Carol walked into her apartment, saw that it had been vandalized and raced back to her car.

Not writing for a newspaper:

• Dan went nuts at the bookstore and bought William Faulkner: the Yoknapatawpha Country, Understanding Fiction, and Understanding Poetry.

Don’t forget the two-adjective rule:

If you have two adjectives that modify the noun (and not each other), then put a comma between them.

Coordinate adjectives:

• The tall, striking woman gave a large tip to the harried, nervous waiter. (striking, tall; nervous, harried)

Adjectives that modify each other:

• The sky blue car gleamed beside the dull gray one.

Hint: if the adjectives are reversible,

then you should add the comma.

Comma rule #3

Introductory element sentence.

• Yes, Monique promised that she would help me study.• However, she had to visit her grandmother in the

hospital.• After the concert ended, Neil and Opal went out for

coffee.• On the last play of the second inning, Paul sprained his

ankle.

,

The exception:

If the introductory element is a single, short prepositional phrase, then a comma is unnecessary:

• After the concert the two friends went out for a cup of coffee.

• At the last minute they saw another friend and invited her to join them.

Notice, by the way, that phrases are not considered introductory if the subject and verb that follow them are inverted:

• On the wet sand of the cold beach lay a lifeless form.

• Huddled by the body was a crying child.

Comma rule #4

Sen-

•Did you realize, by the way, that Quentin is both a boy’s

and a girl’s name in The Sound and the Fury?

•Romeo and Juliet, which is a play that our eighth graders

love, is one of Shakespeare’s most poetic.

•Robert Frost, perhaps the most famous American poet of

the century, wrote such recognizable works as “Stopping

by Woods on a Snowy Evening.”

,, interrupter -tence.

Essential and nonessential interrupters

Put a comma if the interrupter is nonessential.

Omit the comma if the interrupter is essential.

Nonessential interrupter:

Edward’s new computer, a Dell laptop, was a powerful machine.

Essential interrupter:

• The computer that Francesca bought was a powerful machine.

Without the interrupter, we don’t know

which computer we’re talking about.

The sentence works without the interrupter;

the computer is identified.

That and which

As Strunk and White point out in The Elements of Style, it is a felicity to use that to begin essential clauses (we do so by ear) and which to begin nonessential clauses (most people don’t hear this distinction).

That (and essential interrupters):

• The edition that George bought was in mint condition.

• The novel that the class chose to read was O Pioneers!

Which (and nonessential interrupters):

• Helen’s new car, which was a mammoth SUV, was promptly nicknamed “The Tank.”

• Irene’s determination, which her classmates and teachers admired, helped her persevere against long odds.

Nonessential interrupters: parentheses, commas, dashes

In setting off nonessential interrupters, we may punctuate in several ways.

Parentheses (to set off clarifying information) :

• Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) was one of our greatest presidents.• My grandfather (my mother’s father) was a banker.

Commas (to set off more substantive information):

• Jeremy’s father, who was a member of the U.S. Congress, spent much of his time away from home.

Dashes (to separate a lengthy interrupter or to emphasize the interrupter:

• Katie--the one student I would never have suspected of grade grubbing--actually begged me for a point on her midsemester average.

Commas and quotation marks

Although the convention makes little sense, in the U.S. we put commas inside closing quotation marks no matter what the circumstances.

• One of my favorite stories is Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” a tale of strange love.

• The poem “Woodchucks,” which I asked my ninth graders to explicate in class, is a troubling piece about the inclination to violence that dwells in the human soul.