Commas to Set Off Introductory Words, Phrases, and Clauses.

1. Commas to Set Off Introductory Words, Phrases, and Clauses. By Amy Bertram and Lois Payment EN111, Fall, BMCC

2. The Rule • Use commas after an introductory word, phrase, or clause.

3. Examples! • Instead, Van decided to take the summer off. • The next morning, the newspaper reported the election results. • Since the class did not meet yesterday, Mitzi spent the day in the library.

4. Practice the Rule • Reluctantly the instructor agreed to postpone the test. • Reluctantly, the instructor agreed to postpone the test. • During the seventh-inning stretch Harry Caray led the fans in “Take Me Out To The Ball Game.” • During the seventh-inning stretch, Harry Caray led the fans in, “Take Me Out To The Ball Game.”

5. More Practice… • In fact the car has had very few problems. • In fact, the car has had very few problems. • Yawning loudly Eric said, “Is it morning already?” • Yawning loudly, Eric said, “Is it morning already?”

6. Even more practice! • When Kim plays video games she shuts out the world. • When Kim plays video games, she shuts out the world. • Even though English is a hard subject I still come to class. • Even though English is a hard subject, I still come to class.

7. Easy Way To Remember With most of these sentences there is sort of a natural pause, one that would be there if the sentence were being read aloud. This pause can be after a single word, a phrase, or even a clause. At the end of any of these is where the comma goes. If the sentence can be read aloud and a pause is given, then a comma should be placed there when the sentence is written.