Kimberly Lang

Battling the Grammar Gremlins

Commas, part 1

Kimberly Lang

Let’s just jump in to the most common issue for most writers: the comma. Before you dive under the covers, remember that commas (like most punctuation) are your friends. They separate the sentence into logical pieces, keeping ideas from running together and causing confusion.

Commas trip up lots of people, so you are not alone. (Put five English grad students in a room together and watch them argue over where the comma goes.) We’ll start with some basic comma rules. (I’m using Diana Hacker’s rules from A Writer’s Reference as my helpful guide today.)

Rule: Use a comma before a coordinating conjunction joining independent clauses.

Excellent rule, but what does it mean? Let’s define what we’re talking about first.

An independent clause is a group of words that can stand alone—like a sentence. We went to the store is an independent clause. It carries a complete thought. A dependent clause (also called a subordinate clause) often has subjects and verbs but cannot stand alone as a complete sentence. Since I am a mother does not carry a complete thought; it’s dependent on something else to carry the full meaning.

A conjunction is one of your eight parts of speech. Conjunctions (if you remember your School House Rock lessons) join words, phrases, or clauses, and they indicate the relation of the elements. A coordinating conjunction connects grammatically equal elements—like two independent clauses. Our seven friendly coordinating conjunctions are and, but, or, nor, for, so, and yet.

So, take two independent clauses…

I went to the store. I bought milk and eggs.

Add your coordinating conjunction…

I went to the store and I bought milk and eggs. (Yikes! That’s a run-on sentence!)

Where does the comma go? Before the conjunction:

I went to the store, and I bought milk and eggs.

Voila! Now you have a delightful, correctly punctuated compound sentence.

Warning! Don’t run through sticking commas in front of all your coordinating conjunctions. The clauses must be independent. I walked to the store and bought milk doesn’t need a comma. And bought milk is not independent; it’s part of a compound predicate for the subject I.

Rule: Use a comma between all items in a series.

Easy enough, right? Hang on there, bucko.

Sara brought cookies, cakes, and brownies to the meeting. (Yay, Sara.)

You’ll hear people argue this rule because different houses and publications have different conventions about that last comma. Some publishers omit the comma between the last two items in a series (that last comma is sometimes called the “final serial comma” or “the Oxford comma”).

Sara brought cookies, cakes and brownies to the meeting.

In the sentence above, it doesn’t make that much of a difference. Choose whether you will use the final serial comma or not and be consistent in your usage. It’s easy enough to fix in the editing stage if your house or publication uses the other convention. Of course, if you can find out which style your house of choice prefers in advance, then do it that way from the beginning.

Exception: Be sure omitting that last comma doesn’t cause your sentence to become misleading or ambiguous:

My aunt left me all of her valuables, jewelry and china. Did Auntie leave you her valuables AND her jewelry AND her china, or does the jewelry and china make up the entirety of her valuables? The sentence is ambiguous, and the need for clarity trumps all.

Rule: Use a comma between coordinate adjectives not joined by and. Do not use a comma between cumulative adjectives.

This one sounds more confusing than it really is. Let’s define some terms first.

Adjectives describe nouns: red car, successful businesswoman.

If you have two or more adjectives modifying a noun separately, they are coordinate.

Let’s say that businesswoman is successful, smart, and savvy. If you can add an and between each term (smart and successful and savvy), or if they can be scrambled and still make sense (a savvy, successful, smart businesswoman) then the adjectives are coordinate. Coordinate adjectives are separated by a comma, but there’s no comma between the final adjective and the noun:

The savvy, successful, smart businesswoman closed the deal.

Cumulative adjectives do not modify the noun separately:

Two small white rabbits bounded away from the dog.

Look how our adjectives lean on each other. White modifies ‘rabbits’; small modifies ‘white rabbits’; two modifies ‘small white rabbits.’ They cannot be separated by the word and—not and still make sense—nor can they be scrambled (white small two rabbits). No commas here.

Rule: Use a comma after an introductory word group.

We use introductory word groups as adverbs much of the time, telling our readers when, where, why, how, or under what conditions the main action occurred. Use a comma to let the reader know where the phrase or clause ends and the main part of the sentence begins.

When John was ready to shoot the dog flushed the birds from the bushes.

Whoa. Without a comma telling us the introductory clause was finished, our eyes and mind grouped the words together, and John was about to shoot that poor dog.

When John was ready to shoot, the dog flushed the birds from the bushes.

Much better. The dog is safe. Not all introductory clauses will be quite so worrying, but you still need to use a comma between the introductory phrase/clause and the main sentence.

Once we got to the edge of the woods, Karen pitched the tent.

Exception: In a short sentence where there is no chance of misunderstanding, the comma can be omitted.

The next day we went fishing.

Another introductory word group is the participial phrase. A participial phrase has a verb not acting as a verb (this is called a verbal phrase). So, while your phrase will include a present participle ending in –ing or a past participle ending in –d, -ed, -n, -en, or –t, it acts as an adjective modifying a noun or pronoun.

Thinking it would rain, I brought an umbrella today. (“Thinking it would rain” modifies “I.”)

Lost for weeks, Mary’s book turned up in her backpack. (“Lost for weeks” modifies “Mary’s book.”)

The comma is never omitted in this situation, even if the participial phrase is short.

Let’s finish with an easy rule.

Rule: Use commas to set of nouns of direct address, the words “yes” and “no,” interrogative tags, and mild interjections.

A noun of direct address is a name:

Silly Rabbit, Trix are for kids. Or Pass the potatoes, Mother, if you don’t mind.

Yes and No are easy:

Yes, you do have to learn all these comma rules.

(Stack those two rules together and you get Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.)

Interrogative tags are those little questions hanging at the end of a sentence.

You’re going to learn all the comma rules, aren’t you?

For those of you who do remember School House Rock, feel free to sing along:

“Interjections (Hey!) show excitement (Yow!) or emotion (Ouch!).

They’re generally set apart from a sentence by an exclamation point,

or by a comma when the feeling’s not as strong.”

Well, comma rules can be fun. (Mild emotion.)

Yikes! Commas can be tricky! (Strong emotion.)

Does your head hurt? Okay, then we’ll end today’s lesson here. Five comma rules demystified—not bad for a few minutes reading. Practice these, and we’ll do more next time.