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Mastering English Commas: The Essential Guide

Learn the six basic rules of comma usage from "The LEAST You Should Know about English Commas." Perfect your skills and enhance your writing with clear examples and explanations. Written by Tim McGinn and The NWACC Writing Center.

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Mastering English Commas: The Essential Guide

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  1. The SIX Basic Comma Rules Thanks to a great book: The LEAST You Should Know about English

  2. Comma Rule #1 • The Serial…Comma, not Killer… Place a comma between items in a series as in the example below. I have my laptop, my pens, my pencils, and my MP3 Player in my backpack.

  3. Comma Rule #2 • The Coordinating Conjunction Comma... Place a comma before a coordinating conjunction that joins two independent clauses. The coordinating conjunctions are: and, but, for, nor, or, so, and yet. For Example: The best place to take a vacation is Chicago, but the best place to take a honeymoon is Hawaii.

  4. Comma Rule #3 • The Introductory Word or Phrase comma… Always place a comma after an introductory word or phrase. See below. John, what are you doing to my car? OR As I walked down the street, I ran into a friend I hadn’t seen in years.

  5. Comma Rule #4 • The Interrupting Word/Phrase Comma… Always place a comma before and after any word or phrase that can be removed from the sentence and still make sense. For Example: John, the teacher, wrote his name on the board. OR I ran down the street, though I didn’t have to, and fell down and hurt my crown.

  6. Comma Rule #5 • The Concluding Word/Phrase Comma… Always place a comma before any word or phrase that is just tagged on at the end of the sentence. See below. Is that you in the corner, John? OR I hadn’t seen John in years, though that didn’t make much difference in our friendship.

  7. Comma Rule #6 • The Catch-all Comma…use it… to separate numbers more than four digits long (1,000,000), to separate city from state, (Paris, Texas), to separate month & year (August 15, 1980), before and after titles (James Smith, M.D., is no longer working here.), or to prevent confusion (To err is human; to forgive, divine.)

  8. Here’s the book…

  9. Brought to you by Tim McGinn & The NWACC Writing Center

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