Comma splice anyone? The ubiquitous comma is the bane of any aspiring writer. More so for editors I can imagine. For readers, it helps to know this stuff so you can recognize bad grammar when you see it!
I don’t get it right all the time either, and often confuse myself over the correct usage of said comma. The following is probably the best info I’ve read thus far on the subject. It’s from a book called simply “English Grammar” by Rose and Purkis. Without further ado, here’s my quickie summary of the text:
- A comma is used to separate anything that is a list. Not just nouns, but also adjectives, adverbs and verbs. E.g. She put her keys, lipstick, purse and perfume into her bag. (Note. There is no comma after ‘and’ as it’s a list. If she does something else then you would add a comma. E.g. She put her keys, lipstick, purse and perfume into her bag, and sighed.)
- A comma is used to separate subordinate words, phrases or clauses from the main sentence. As in the above example. E.g. She put her keys, lipstick, purse and perfume into her bag, and sighed.
- A comma is used to restate or give further information on your subject. E.g. Sheila, who is a wrinkled whore, lives next door to me.
- A comma is used when addressing a person. E.g. “Come here, Sheila, let me see you.” or “Hi, Sheila.”
- A comma is used when an adverb modifies the sentence as a whole. Common modifiers are: however, nevertheless, but, therefore, of course, in fact, for instance etc. E.g. There are, in fact, many reasons for my behavior. Of course, not all of them are justified. The most important ones, however, are. (An exception to this is if the modifier ‘modifies a single word, and not the entire sentence. However’ is used to modify the word ‘much’ in the following sentence, therefore no comma is used. E.g. “She couldn’t forget him however much she tried.”
- A comma is used between clauses whose subjects are different. E.g. She called for silence, but the kids continued screaming. In this case the comma comes after ‘but’ as the sentence following the comma has a different ‘subject’ to the subject before the comma. She is the first subject, the kids are the second subject, hence you use a comma.
- In the editing process you’ll often hear about comma splices. This simply means that a sentence is spliced by a comma with no coordinating conjunction such as but, and, thus etc. E.g. Incorrect: “She went to his house, he wasn’t home.” Correct: “She went to his house, but he wasn’t home.” There are two independent sentences, thus it needs a comma and co-ordinator. Of course, there are cases in writing where it makes no sense to have the comma. My advice? Either use a coordinator, or split the two independent sentences into two. It will save you some work during the editing process. Remember the comma always comes before the coordinating conjunction.
- Exception. This is an important one. If there is only one subject in the sentence then you do not use a comma. E.g. She called for silence but got no response. She is the only subject in this sentence. Some website advise that a comma always comes after a conjunction–this is not so. This is the one time this rule does not apply.
Of course a comma can also be used to show a pause in writing, but use it sparingly. Confused yet? If you’re not sure, then put a comma! It helps to read and re-read rules on commas to drum it into your memory.
Tags: Comma useage, Commas
By: Dede Craig | 
