A student in my “History of the English Language” course stopped me after class a few weeks ago and asked, “I was just wondering—how do you feel about the Oxford comma?” She could have asked about the ...
Contrary to popular belief, commas don't just signify pauses in a sentence. In fact, precise rules govern when to use this punctuation mark. When followed, they lay the groundwork for clear written ...
Despite claims to the contrary Peter Carey did not get rid of all the commas in his 2001 Booker prize-winning novel True History of the Kelly Gang (there are 13 on the first page alone) and attempting ...
Adding a comma can change the meaning of a sentence. Let's eat Albert. = We're going to eat Albert. Let's eat, Albert. = We're eating with Albert. In a long sentence, you can use commas to separate ...
In order to make your writing clear, you need to use commas. As well as using them to separate out key information, or divide up different clauses, commas can also completely change the meaning of a ...
Comma questions keep cropping up online, and will forever, because the simple punctuation mark serves two different functions, which are blurred in usage. Some are necessary grammatically, some ...
HAPPY National Grammar Day, everyone. Today's offering is only marginally on grammar. We've asked "What is grammar anyway?" here at Johnson. The layperson would almost certainly answer "those ...