Jul
11
I enjoy cooking. I’m not really spectacular at it — my roux always seems a little pasty and my soups too often turn a bit too soupy. But I’m pretty good with spices. Which isn’t surprising; I got a lot of practice using commas.
Learning to use commas is like learning to use spices. Add too many, and they can utterly destroy the flavor of your content. Read an essay with too many commas in it, and you’ll be tasting commas for the rest of the day. And whenever you see one, you’ll recoil, even if it’s used properly.
But if you don’t use enough commas, your writing will be a flavorless, incomprehensible mush, a bizarre melange of non-flavors that intrude on each other like chicken gravy spilling over the TV-dinner-tray barrier into the chocolate cake compartment. And that’s just unpleasant.
(Another thing you never want to do when writing is use half-assed mixed metaphors that you’ll later have to apologize for. But that’s another post.)
In my travels across the Internet, I’ve noticed that most writers generally tend to take the same approach to using commas that I used for talking to girls in college:
If I don’t do it, then I can’t screw it up.
The same way I avoided Alicia Wrobleski, most bloggers avoid using too many commas, figuring that not using a comma is better than misusing a comma. Of course, this is nonsense. Not doing something is usually worse than trying and failing. And just as the bedpost in room 311 of Sherwood Hall could have had a lot more notches in it if I had just put forth the effort, so your writing can flow effortlessly through your readers’ eyeballs into the Broca regions of their brains.
So: If you only remember one thing about commas for the rest of your life, remember this: A comma is a breath. If you’re a long-winded writer, commas are some of the best gifts you can give to your readers.
Consider this sentence from an advance review of The Dark Knight, posted on one of the Web’s more popular movie sites:
I personally am not a fan of the Joker and find him often grating and overused foil for Batman but there’s no denying his place in history and to many people the first film’s Achilles Heel was the lack of the signature Batman villain.
There’s actually a lot wrong with this sentence (though I agree with the sentiment it expresses). The word “personally” as used here is unnecessary, and really, this whole thing should be broken down into two or more sentences. But let’s see what we can’t fix with commas:
I personally am not a fan of the Joker, and find him often grating and overused foil for Batman, but there’s no denying his place in history, and to many people the first film’s Achilles Heel was the lack of the signature Batman villain.
It’s still not perfect, but see how much simpler a few commas made your reading experience? Commas aid in comprehension in ways that are subtle and subconscious to many of us.
Here’s another example — one that’s more easily fixed — from a popular political site. Here the writer is reacting to a column on marriage in the New York Times:
I just think it is unrealistic and feeds into those crazy ideals we have to internalize and then adds more pressure on our relationships.
One of the problems with failing to use commas when offering your opinion is that it’s easy to come off with a lecturing tone. Again, there’s plenty wrong with this sentence, but it can be patched up pretty well with the addition of a few commas:
I just think it is unrealistic, and feeds into those crazy ideals we have to internalize, and then adds more pressure on our relationships.
But you didn’t come here for examples. That’s not where the hot, wet grammatical action is. You came here for rules.
So, with the caveat that the rules of grammar are really more like guidelines, I offer a few simple rules (um, or guidelines) for using commas.
1. Commas go before conjunctions introducing independent clauses. Conjunctions are words like and, but, or and yet. Independent clauses are sentence clauses with a subject and verb (think of them as clauses that could stand as complete sentences if need be). Keeping an independent clause separated from the rest of the sentence by a comma helps the reader know when he’s moving on to a new thought. The sentence “Alicia Wrobleski was a total babe, and I’m still kicking myself for never having the nerve to talk to her” is a good example of how to use a comma to separate clauses.
2. Never use a comma when a semicolon will do. Don’t simply use commas to separate two independent clauses; doing so betrays a lack of wordsmithing acumen. (See what I just did there?)
3. The rules for lists aren’t as hard and fast as you think. Some people will use commas throughout a list, as in “apples, oranges, grapes, and bananas.” Others will eschew that ultimate comma, opting to write “apples, oranges, grapes and bananas.” Either way is correct, so don’t sweat it.
4. Use commas to separate nonessential elements of sentences. What constitutes a nonessential element may be a bit hazy at times, so try to think of this as one of those times when you’re giving your reader a chance to take a breath. Think about this sentence:
Barack Obama, who is originally from Hawaii, is running for president.
Now imagine it without commas. Pretty hard to read that way, isn’t it?
5. Don’t use commas after conjunctions. Look at every use of the words and, but, nor and or (as well as subordinating conjunctions like although and because) — how would they look with a comma stuck after them. Pretty bad, that’s how.
I know I’m going to get a lot of arguments from big-money SEO types about how this kind of stuff doesn’t matter if it doesn’t affect your clickthrough rate or your pagerank. And to be honest, the rules of good grammar are malleable not always trustworthy. But trust me: This stuff is important. How you sound to others is important.
It probably would have impressed Alicia Wrobleski. At least, I like to think so.
Popularity: 24% [?]
It is not just, not using the comma, but just about everything that is the problem with modern written English, and particularly in the Internet. Another major mis or disuse is of semi and full colons. One more about which more has been written than any other subject on English Grammar, is the apostrophe!
There, I tried to write long sentences with commas!
This is a timely and useful post for people who desire to improve their punctuation.
It’s amazing that you try to sound like you know what you are talking about, but really have no clue whatsoever.
“It is not just, not using the comma …” – what? You mean, “it’s not just not using the comma … ” right?
“One more about which more has been written …” – what? I can’t even try and guess at this one.
Then again, the author of this blog doesn’t have much of a clue either, but managed to write over 1,000 words about a subject he clearly doesn’t understand too well: punctuation. Clearly demonstrated by his fourth sentence.
“Which isn’t surprising; I got a lot of practice using commas.” – since when is that an appropriate use of a semicolon?
I despair.
Well, unless you have anything constructive to add, I’d say go despair somewhere else and stop shitting in my discussion threads. The Internet is a big place.
Most people don’t now how to use the comma and that’s a shame. Everybody who is a native English speaker should be able to do this! Knowing how to use your own grammar is one of the most important things in life.
Punctuation in English is very tricky and everyone use it at their own discretion. For example, in Russian the punctuation rules are very strict (except for long dashes and semicolons
).
As for me, I use commas to logically separate different elements of the sentence, so I prefer to trust my guts here…
This is a great post for someone like me, who should have paid more attention in school, and now finds himself having to write.
Thanks a lot,
Niall
I personally don’t like the use of the comma & and together. Personal choice I suppose.
This is very true,the one thing that bugs me in blog posts is people that don’t know how to spell.I wonder if they ever heard of spell check.Ha!
This was really useful. It’s been a long time since English class!
My old grammar teacher was adamant that you should never use a comma before and, but, or, nor etc. In her book, those naturally break up a sentence and do not require additional punctuation.
She would argue that there is no such thing as a independent clause. That is a new sentence. I tend to agree.
Not really sure what you’re getting at here, but it sounds like your old grammar teacher (a) sounds like someone who had a problem with complex sentences for some reason, and (2) was, more or less, wrong.
Not believing in independent clauses doesn’t make them go away…
I’m not saying I agree with her or follow here preachings but I can follow her logic. In the same way, she believed that you should only use and or but (etc) once in a sentence, not break it up more often.
I like this post a lot. Most blogging tips these days are about SEO and linking strategies. It’s refreshing to read a blog about actual writing tips. Personally, I like to use the breath test for my writing. If you can’t read an entire sentence in one breath, you need to either insert commas or make it 2 separate sentences. Keep up the good work!
That’s a great rule, Eric! And thanks for the kind words — we try to provide tips that go beyond the standard web-maven stuff.
No. Really? You are NOT talking about fucking my H.S. sweetheart, right? I mean, good, for you. (or Not, appearantly). But no, how many Alicia Wrobleski’s could there have been at college in NY at that point
possibly many. sorry, it’s been quite a few years since I did the whole internet thing, so i’m a bit rusty. But Alicia sure did like comma’s, and perhaps she’s even happy now. Hope so. Cheers and Goodnight, Shaun
The secret is not just to write long sentences with commas, but to make sense with them as well. Most punctuation takes a back seat with slang, and that is why we need to be careful about how we write.
This is one of the best grammar tutorial I hardly seen on other blogs. Little did I realize that something as minute as a comma matters a lot in copywriting.
You certainly have an eye for details. Awesome!
Wow well-explained significance of Commas in writing indeed! You are very right adding too many of them may take away the flavor of the content but at the same time it must be checked that they are being used wherever needed otherwise you may be asking for trouble for sure!
thank you for article, it useful
I don’t see too much slang on the more popular blogs, certainly not from the posters and only occasionally from commentators.
Just imagine if text/MSN speak crept in
Writing a content, fully stuffed with keywords, is not an easy task. Perhaps a native English speaker can write in a sophisticated way. Your blog is in my daily list now and I hope to learn a lot of good things.
[...] post about semicolons which does two things: Settles a discussion I had with commenter PS3 after my comma post, and makes completely obsolete the post I had planned on [...]
Oooh, just spotted this pingback, hope I didn’t create any problems, was just recounting my school days, sorry.
Oh, another useful article, thanks for ur reminds!
I still remember my English teacher being livid about how I never used to put commas in the right place and I think there have been times that I consciously avoided it.
But now I do think that it is very important that you put the commas in the right place and make sure what you write is valid and legible.
Very interesting article. I often write and am not too sure how many commas is enough. Its a continuous conflict that I have with myself. With really ponder what you have written.
No commas there K Gift, maybe you are cured!
You made a very good comparison and explained your point in a very simple manner, i love the way you write. I frankly have much problems with commas, sometimes i tend to put it where its not necessary.. thanks for the tips, they are really useful.
It’s always good to read something that keeps my writing style in check. Thanks for the refresher. I’m always in training.
i always liked the semi-:, myself. When my dad taught me how to use them, i flipped out and put them everywhere. and why is my post not showing up about Alicia. God, I Hate the perversion the internet has become. Are they, like, waiting to check it out cause I said the f-word? (no worries, it was nothing (too) bad).
A comma is a punctuation mark to indicate a pause in a sentence or it is also used to separate words in a list. You gave a very good explanation of it, i had a lot of problem concerning where to place commas. Thanks.
I was an English teacher in a Los Angeles city college for about 5 years, and had more trouble trying to teach students these simple comma rules… why don’t you send this link out to every single grammar school English teacher!?
Thanks for the great breakdown. Maybe one on the semi-colon too…
Very interesting article.
Thanks for sharing..
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Always use the comma before the coordinating conjunction (like and), …. to be a great refresher as I’m currently teaching a developmental writing course.
The comma is a valuable, useful punctuation device because it separates the structural elements of sentences into manageable segments. The rules provided here are those found in traditional handbooks; however, in certain rhetorical contexts and for specific purposes, these rules may be broken.
Great post!
The coma is very important in a sentence. It is hard to understand a text without punctuation. Definitely you can confuse the reader using commas incorrectly.
I totally agree with you. The sentence has to have an organization in the sentence. Without the correct punctuation the sentence would be confused.