the comma is the most complicated punctuation mark in the english language not only does it
have many uses but it also has many misuses in the element of style by william strunk jr and eb
white four punctuation principles were deemed most important and that they should be so thoroughly
mastered that their application becomes second nature now if you're ready grab a pen and notebook
strap yourself in because we are going to quickly go through these four important punctuation rules
yay enclose parenthetical expressions with commas take this example the dog that ran away came back
with a cat the fact that the dog ran away is extra information but this information is also
essential to the sentence it's this essentialness or restrictiveness that determines the role commas
play a parenthetical expression is a word or phrase that adds to the sentence to give extra
information if the information is essential such as in the dog that ran away came back with a cat
you may omit the commas however you can add commas to separate if the information is non-essential
such as in the dog hungry for treats came back with a cat so remember this way if the information
is essential you may omit the commas but if the information can be removed without influencing
the meaning of the sentence then you should add the commas another way to put it is to recognize
non-restrictive terms and clauses as they will often require commas in the middle of a sentence
these non-restrictive clauses are often preceded by which when and where such as the car which was
illegally parked got towed non-restrictive clauses may also appear at the beginning of a sentence
parking the car illegally the man hurried into the store to summarize you won't need commas
for a sentence like the boy is a criminal but you will need one for my son billy stole my car
how are we doing a little confusing huh you're not alone this rule for me is one of the most
challenging in the entire language because sometimes the importance of the information
can feel subjective don't feel bogged down by all the commas shrunk in white gives you permission to
omit them if the interruption is short if you are to remove the commas however don't remove
one but not the other personally i always use commas to break up however as well as dates
place a comma before a conjunction introducing an independent clause a conjunction is a word that
connects two separate elements or sentences common examples include fanboys for and nor but or yet so
and also as used in relation to because and while used in relation to events happening
at the same time when a conjunction comes before an independent clause which can serve as a single
sentence in itself a comma is required in front of it the traffic was bad but the robbers were
going to escape no matter what or the police chased on foot for the roads were gridlocked
with the dependent clause it gets a little tricky according to shrunken white if the claws in the
sentence share the same subject the subject is only expressed once and the conjunction is but
then adding a comma will be useful the robbers found a hiding spot but forgot to take the money
however if the conjunction is and then omitting the comma will be okay as the two interlinking
thoughts are closely related the police found the money in the car and decide to keep it for
themselves do not join independent clauses with a comma if you have two complete and separate
thoughts with their own subject and verb such as the monster emerged from the swamp
the terrified campers climbed up the tree do not place a comma between them to correct it you have
a few options the first option is breaking it into two sentences and using a period
or an exclamation mark while capitalizing the first letter of the following sentence
alternatively you can combine the sentences by using a semicolon or adding a comma
and conjunction the monster emerged from the swamp the terrified campers climbed up the
tree the monster emerged from the swamp so the terrified campers climbed up the tree as you can
tell changing the punctuation mark changes the relationship between the two statements
the better you understand this principle the better control you'll have of your writing style
personally i'm a comma conjunction type of guy but let me know which one you prefer in
the comments below do not break sentences in two simply put commas cannot replace periods
and periods cannot replace commas a period's primary function is to separate complete sentences
so when you use it instead of commas you'll likely end up with sentence fragments
for example he was a wealthy man having earned all his money through buying and trading crypto
it should be he was a wealthy man having earned all his money through buying and trading crypto
a complete sentence has a subject and verb and while the first part can stand as an independent
clause the second half of that sentence is missing the subject an exception to this principle which i
recommend using sparingly is to break the sentence when you want to emphasize a specific word such as
he punched the wall hard there you have it those are four of the most important
punctuation principles according to strunk and white once you get a hang of them you will be
well on your way to being a proficient writer and editor with another tool in your tool belt
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