{"id":1794,"date":"2015-03-13T22:53:26","date_gmt":"2015-03-13T22:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/technicalwriting1xmaster\/?post_type=chapter&p=1794"},"modified":"2023-03-28T22:48:48","modified_gmt":"2023-03-28T22:48:48","slug":"commas","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-jeffersoncc-technicalwriting\/chapter\/commas\/","title":{"raw":"Commas","rendered":"Commas"},"content":{"raw":"These little demons compound and trivialize the nightmares of many a professor after an evening of reading student papers. A sure way to irritate educated readers of your work is to give them an overabundance of opportunities to address your comma problems. It is easy but dangerous to take the attitude that Sally once did in a Peanuts <\/em>comic strip, asking Charlie Brown to correct her essay by showing her \u201cwhere to sprinkle in the little curvy marks.\u201d\r\n\r\nYou have probably heard the common tips on using commas: \u201cUse one wherever you would naturally use a pause,\u201d or \u201cRead your work aloud, and whenever you feel yourself pausing, put in a comma.\u201d These techniques help to a degree, but our ears tend to trick us and we need other avenues of attack. However, it seems impossible to remember or apply the 17 or so grammatical explanations of comma usage that you were probably introduced to way back in 8th grade. (For example: \u201cUse commas to set off independent clauses joined by the common coordinating conjunctions. . . . Put a comma before the coordinating conjunction in a series.\u201d) Perhaps the best and most instructive way, then, for us to approach the comma is to remember its fundamental function: it is a separator. Knowing this, it is useful to determine what sorts of things generally require separation. In sum, commas are used to separate complete ideas, descriptive phrases, and adjacent items, and before and after most transition words.\r\n

Comma Rules<\/h4>\r\nComplete ideas need to be separated by a comma because, by definition, they could be grammatically autonomous, but the writer is choosing to link them. Complete ideas are potentially whole sentences that the writer chooses to link with a conjunction such as \u201cand\u201d or \u201cbut.\u201d\r\n
Digital recordings made it possible to measure the nuclear magnetic signal at any depth, and this allowed for a precise reading to be taken at every six inches.<\/blockquote>\r\nNote how the second half of this sentence contains both a subject (\u201cthis\u201d) and a verb (\u201callowed\u201d), indicating that a second complete idea is presented, and thus a comma is required.\r\n\r\nDescriptive phrases often need to be separated from the things that they describe in order to clarify that the descriptive phrases are subordinate (i.e., they relate to the sentence context, but are less responsible for creating meaning than the sentence\u2019s subject and verb). Descriptive phrases tend to come at the very beginning of a sentence, right after the subject of a sentence, or at the very end of a sentence.\r\n
Near the end of the eighteenth century, James Hutton introduced a point of view that radically changed scientists\u2019 thinking about geologic processes.\r\n\r\nJames Lovelock, who first measured CFCs globally, said in 1973 that CFCs constituted no conceivable hazard.\r\n\r\nAll of the major industrialized nations approved, making the possibility a reality.<\/blockquote>\r\nIn each of these cases, note how the material separated by the comma (e.g., \u201cmaking the possibility a reality\u201d) is subordinate\u2014i.e., it carries context in the sentence, but the primary sentence meaning is still derived from the subject and verb. In each example, the phrase separated by the comma could be deleted from the sentence without destroying the sentence\u2019s basic meaning.\r\n\r\nAdjacent items are words or phrases that have some sort of parallel relationship, yet are different from each other in meaning. Adjacent items are separated so that the reader can consider each item individually.\r\n
Weathering may extend only a few centimeters beyond the zone in fresh granite, metamorphic rocks, sandstone, shale, and other rocks.\r\n\r\nThe river caught fire on July 4, 1968, in Cleveland, Ohio.\r\n\r\nThis approach increases homogeneity, reduces the heating time, and creates a more uniform microstructure.<\/blockquote>\r\nIn the first sentence, the commas are important because each item presented is distinctly different from its adjacent item. In the second example, the dates (July 4, 1968) and places (Cleveland, Ohio) are juxtaposed, and commas are needed because the juxtaposed items are clearly different from each other. In the third example, the three phrases, all beginning with different verbs, are parallel, and the commas work with the verbs to demonstrate that \u201cThis approach\u201d has three distinctly different impacts.\r\n\r\nFinally, transition words add new viewpoints to your material; commas before and after transition words help to separate them from the sentence ideas they are describing. Transition words tend to appear at the beginning of or in the middle of a sentence, and, by definition, the transition word creates context that links to the preceding sentence. Typical transition words that require commas before and after them include however, thus, therefore, also, and nevertheless.\r\n
Therefore, the natural gas industry can only be understood fully through an analysis of these recent political changes.\r\n\r\nThe lead precursor was prepared, however, by reacting pure lead acetate with sodium isopropoxide.<\/blockquote>\r\n
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Self-Study<\/h3>\r\nThere are plenty of websites devoted to exercises on comma usage for those who wish to self-study.\u00a0 Try this\u00a0comma quiz.<\/a>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Using a Comma Before \u201cAnd\u201d<\/h4>\r\nIt is true that commas are sometimes optional, depending on sentence meaning and the writer\u2019s taste, and many writers choose not to put a comma before the \u201cand\u201d in a series (also known as the \u201cserial comma\u201d) involving a parallel list of words. For example, some would write the sentence \u201cI am industrious, resourceful and loyal,\u201d using no comma before the \u201cand.\u201d This practice is fine as long as you are consistent in applying it. However, I, and the grammar handbooks I consult, recommend a comma even in these circumstances, because\u2014even in the example provided\u2014there is a slight pitch and meaning change between the terms \u201cresourceful\u201d and \u201cloyal.\u201d\r\n\r\nMost importantly, if the \u201cand\u201d is part of a series of three or more phrases (groups of words) as opposed to single words, you should use a comma before the \u201cand\u201d to keep the reader from confusing the phrases with each other.\r\n
Medical histories taken about each subject included smoking history, frequency of exercise, current height and weight, and recent weight gain.<\/blockquote>\r\nBy always using a comma before the \u201cand\u201d in any series of three or more, you honor the distinctions between each of the separated items, and you avoid any potential reader confusion. The bottom line is this: When you use a comma before the \u201cand\u201d in a series of three or more items or phrases, you are always correct.\r\n\r\nThat noted, be aware that some professors and many journals will not favor the use of the comma before an \u201cand\u201d in a series (for the journals, it is literally cheaper to print fewer commas).\r\n
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Self-Study<\/h3>\r\nPlenty of online debate is devoted to the serial comma issue. Here are some related thoughts from \"Punctuation Man\" and the \u201cGrammar Girl\u201d:\r\n
Punctuation Man endorsing the serial comma<\/a><\/blockquote>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

Comma Overuse<\/h4>\r\nPerhaps the best way to troubleshoot your particular comma problems, especially if they are serious, is to identify and understand the patterns of your errors. We tend to make the same mistakes over and over again; in fact, many writers develop the unfortunate habit of automatically putting commas into slots such as these:\r\n