Commas

Commas Doctor Punctuation August 24, 2012 Commas Suppose you are presenting a speech. If you read too quickly, your audience will not be able to understand what you are saying. You also will need to stop and take a breath a few times as you read. How do you know where to pause, where to change your voice, and where to stop' You can use the punctuation marks you encounter as a guide for your pacing. Punctuation marks provide visual clues to readers, telling them how the sentence should be read. Some punctuation marks tell you that you are reading a list of items, while other marks tell you that a sentence contains two independent ideas. Punctuation marks tell you not only when a sentence ends, but also what kind of sentence you have read. This essay covers different types of punctuation and how they can be used in sentences to convey meaning. One of the punctuation clues to reading you may encounter is the comma (,). The comma is a punctuation mark that indicates a pause in a sentence, or a separation of things in a list. Commas can be used in a variety of ways. You may notice a comma that appears near the beginning of the sentence, usually after a word or phrase. This comma lets the reader know where the introductory word or phrase ends and the main sentence begins. When you want to list several nouns in a sentence, you separate each word with a comma. This allows the reader to pause after each item and identify which words are included in the grouping. When you list items in a sentence, put a comma after each noun, then add the word and before the last item. However, you do not need to include a comma before the last item. You can use commas to list adjectives as well as nouns. A string of adjectives that describe a noun are called coordinating adjectives. These adjectives come before the noun they modify and are separated by commas. One important thing to note, however, is that unlike listing nouns, the word and does not always need to be before the last adjective. Commas are sometimes used to separate two independent clauses. The comma comes after the first independent clause, followed by a conjunction, such as for, and, or but. In conversations, you might interrupt your train of thought by giving more details about what you are talking about. In a sentence, you might interrupt your train of thought with a word or phrase called interrupting words. Interrupting words can come at the beginning or middle of a sentence. When the Interrupting words appear at the beginning of the sentence, a comma appears after the word or phrase. When interrupting words come in the middle of a sentence, they are separated from the rest of the sentence by commas. You can determine where the commas should go by looking for the part of the sentence that is not essential for the sentence to make sense.You will also use commas when you write the date in cover letters and emails. Commas are used when you write the date, when you include an address, and when you greet someone. If you are writing out the full date, add a comma after the day and before the year. You do not need to add a comma when you write the month and the day, or when you write the month and the year. If you need to continue the sentence after you add a date, add a comma after the date. You will also use commas when you include addresses and locations. When you include an address in a sentence, be sure to place a comma after the street and after the city. Do not place a comma between the state and the zip code. Like a date, if you need to continue the sentence after adding the address, simply add a comma after the address. Greetings are also separated by commas. When you write an email or a letter, you add a comma after the greeting word or the person’s name. You also need to include a comma after a word or phrase you put before your signature. So to recap remember the following points. Punctuation marks provide visual cues to readers to tell them how to read a sentence. Punctuation marks convey meaning. Commas indicate a pause or a list in a sentence. A comma should be used after an introductory word to separate the word from the main sentence. A comma comes after each noun in a list. The word and is added before the last noun. A comma comes after every coordinating adjective except for the last adjective. Commas can be used to separate the two independent clauses in compound sentences as long as a conjunction follows the comma. Commas are used to separate interrupting words from the rest of the sentence. When you write the date, you add a comma between the day and the year. You also add a comma after the year if the sentence continues after the date. When they are used in a sentence, addresses have commas after the street address and the city. If a sentence continues after the address, a comma comes after the zip code. When you write a letter, you use commas in your greetings at the beginning and the end of your letter.