Comma, the Great Uniter

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What's the fuss about commas?

Commas are one of the most frequently used punctuation marks in the English language, right up there with the period. However, they are also one of the most commonly misplaced punctuation marks in the English language, whether through excessive use or total omission. While commas have a great number of uses, they can be grossly oversimplified into two categories – joining information, and separating information. In this article, we’ll be exploring the use of commas to join information together.

Listing

You’ve probably already seen commas in action between items in a list. Something like, ‘John, Jacob, Tony, and I all went to Lucas’s house last Saturday.’ All in all, a very simple concept to understand. You just put a comma after every item in the list and plonk a coordinating conjunction between the last and second-to-last item. However, it’s not just nouns that can be put together using commas. Adjectives can be strung together using commas, too! Adjectives follow a certain hierarchy, which is more complicated than we should get into now. Some adjectives rank at the same place as each other in that hierarchy, and when that happens, we put a comma between them to show they’re equally as important. Something like ‘a snuggly, sleepy cat.’

In this instance, ‘snuggly’ and ‘sleepy’ are both equally important descriptions of the cat. If you’re not sure if you need to separate them with a comma, try swapping them. If it sounds fine either way, like ‘a sleepy, snuggly cat,’ or ‘a snuggly, sleepy cat,’ then put a comma in between. However, if it sounds weird, like in the instance of ‘a rainbow fabric chair’ vs. ‘a fabric rainbow chair,’ then you don’t need a comma, you just need to swap the adjectives around until they sound right.

The Oxford Comma

To put a comma after ‘and,’ or not to put a comma after ‘and;’ that is the question. The Oxford Comma question, that is. An Oxford comma (sometimes called a serial comma) is a comma that comes between the second-to-last item and the coordinating conjunction before the last item in that list. That would look like, ‘dinner, dancing, and a movie.’ Some people argue that the Oxford comma is integral to grammar to provide clarity. Others argue that it’s unnecessary and that context can provide all the clarity needed. People will die on this Oxford comma hill. However, the truth of the matter is that both ways are correct - it just depends on stylistic preference.

Clauses

Clauses come in two main types, independent and dependent. Commas are used to join either a dependent clause to an independent one, or two related independent clauses to each other. Generally speaking, you’ll need a subjugating conjunction after the comma when you’re joining a dependent and independent clause, and a coordinating conjunction when you’re putting two independent clauses together. That’s going to look something like, “I wanted to go to the concert, but the tickets were sold out,” or “the kids had fun at the pool, because it was summer vacation.”

If you want to know more about clauses, you can learn more here!

Comma splices

Comma splices are a type of run-on sentence. It happens when you start using commas instead of periods, which makes your sentence read like you’re rambling aimlessly. However, it can be a piece of cake to spot these instances once you know what you’re looking for. This is an example sentence using a comma splice: Becky was pretty, so Sean asked her out, but she told him she was out of his league.

On first glance, this sentence might look okay. However, when we look closer, it becomes obvious that there’s just one too many clauses in that sentence. To fix it, we can simply replace one of the two commas with a period, like so: Becky was pretty, so Sean asked her out. She told him she was out of his league.

Wrapping up

In summary, commas are great for joining information together. They can be put between items in a list to show they all belong to the same list or between adjectives to show that they’re both equally important in descriptive hierarchy. They can also be used to join two clauses together with the help of a coordinating or subjugating conjunction. Be wary of comma splices in your sentences, though! If you’ve got more than two commas in a sentence, go back through and look for a spot where you can substitute a comma for a period.

Now you know the basics of joining information with commas! Go forth and do your best!