I had an English professor in college who spent the first few weeks of class giving a comma tutorial... no joke. He was the stone cold comma master and, to this day, I bow to him. Why? Well, mainly because I was guilty of abusing the privilege of using the punctuation too freely (and still have to hold myself back sometimes). He drove home the importance of knowing how and when to use them to such a degree that I still regard his classes as invaluable in that area. And what did he teach? A lot of things, actually. Mainly, he taught that you should hold off on sticking that comma in haphazardly everywhere. A lot of people think that wherever they pause they should insert a comma, but nope. Here are some basic tips to help you remember when to use one:
Separating independent clauses:
"Suzanne bought a briefcase and a handbag, but she opted out of buying luggage." (Okay, I will say that this is a bit of a debated issue, since some English gurus will tell you that you don't always need a comma in a sentence like this, but I'm not taking any chances. I still use them in this instance.)
Listing things:
"I bought a briefcase, a handbag, some gum and a magazine at the airport."
With regards to the above, a lot of folks don't realize that you can use a semi-colon (yes, I said a semi-colon), in place of a comma to separate listed items, but only when they are numerous. An example of this would be a description of job duties on a resume.
Use a comma when you are introducing a sentence with a phrase or word, such as: "Excuse me, do you have the time?" or "Before you go, can you take the dog for a walk?"
Another place for commas is around an appositive, or a parenthetical element. For example:
"Todd took Abby, his wife, to the baseball game." The phrase "his wife" is the parenthetical element that is not necessary to the completion of the sentence. Rather, it is used an an extraneous descriptor. Commas should surround it.
Now, there are all kinds of exceptions to all kinds of rules in the English language, and I am always having to turn to my fellow editors for advice. English is tricky. Heck, we haven't even mentioned using commas in and around dialogue (the very bane of editing fiction, I'll tell you). That really calls for a post of its own, but, I'll briefly mention a few pointers here.
Example:
"I don't like you anymore," she said. The comma is placed before the end quotation, and "she" is lowercase.
I don't want you to get confused about the uppercase/lowercase issue around dialogue tags. It's really not as complicated as it seems. The important thing to remember is the following: If it can't be verbally said in some way, (he said, shouted, yelled, spoke, whispered), then the dialogue needs to be closed with a period (unless it calls for a question mark or exclamation), and the next section capitalized.
Some examples: "I don't like you anymore!" She frowned, turning away from me.
"How do you like me now?" He turned on his heels and left.
"She frowned" and "He turned" are not dialogue tags, as tempting as it is to leave them lowercase. The previous quote should end with a period, not a comma, and "She frowned" or "He turned" or the like should begin the next sentence, because they cannot be spoken.
Dialogue tags within a sentence often confuse people... myself included. I always have to remind myself that, again, if you aren't working with valid dialogue tags, there shouldn't be surrounding commas. See below:
"You think you're something special," she began, "but you're no different from the rest of us."
Okay, the above is an instance of a dialogue tag (in this case, "she began") that require a comma. Below is an example of a few lines that you might be tempted to insert commas into, but don't:
"You think you're something special." She crossed the room to look at me. "You aren't."
Got it? Hopefully I'm helping. There is so much to learn and remember, and Lord knows I don't know it all. That's why there are wonderful resources out there like The Little Brown of Handbook and The Chicago Manual of Style. I'll also link some cool resources at the side bar as I come across them.
Should you have any questions, ask away. Talk to you soon!
Jennifer
