riotheclown

A comma is like a mini-stroke.

There are some who would sacrifice puppies to the Great God of Grammar and others who throw commas around willy-nilly in an orgy of improper punctuation.

I am learning, however, that there are uses for commas. The difference between confusion and understanding can hang on a properly placed comma.

Use commas to separate items in a list. Some people like the comma before an “and” in a series and some people do not. For example:

apples, oranges, and bananas or apples, oranges and bananas. Just make a choice and stick with it.

If there is a part of the sentence that is NOT ESSENTIAL to the meaning of the sentence separate it from the rest of the sentence with a comma. For example:

I’m thinking, which does happen occasionally, about punctuation.

Words like, and, nor, for, and other transition words signal independent clauses needing a comma to separate them. For example:

I hate learning proper grammar, but I know I need it to improve the effectiveness of my writing.

Okay that is enough for now. Come back next week and I will tell you another rule for commas.