Rewrite the following sentences, adding
commas where necessary.
Commas, they decreed, are not for breathing; they are for communicating information about the relationship between clauses in a sentence.
If there were a
comma after "shipment," it might have been clear that the law exempted the distribution of perishable foods.
I think of him every time I consciously put a
comma inside a quotation mark, as I just did.
The devil is in the details, specifically in the last
comma. Since Bell Aliant wanted to sharply increase the pole rate and wanted the contractual flexibility to do that, it interpreted this clause as the right to terminate the agreement at any time, with one year's notice.
The writing center coordinator characterized the thinking behind the FANBOYS mnemonic for me as follows: "A
comma and a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so exclusively) work together as a meaningful semicolon: they join independent clauses that retain their independence once so joined.
But most authors just present a wide array of marks such as the caret, the asterisk, the index, the obelisk, the double
comma, the eclipsis, etc.
We use
commas to set off appositives (words that identify a preceding noun or pronoun) that aren't essential but add parenthetical information:
The other most frequently asked topic centered on using that ubiquitous, challenging mark: the
comma. Even though rules for
commas are far from absolute, tutors--like so many other writers--sought guidance on three uses of
commas, areas about which many professional writers are unsure: after introductory elements, before coordinate conjunctions joining sentences, and preceding such as and as well as.
Concentrating on
commas, it takes a simple sentence and shows how vastly different it can be with a little
comma.
Three million copies have been sold worldwide, uniting a growing band of people who become irate at the sight of an errant
comma or apostrophe.
She said: "If young people leave school without the basic knowledge of where to use
commas and apostrophes, it can deter them from wanting to apply for a job as this would entail filling out a form or writing a covering letter, as well as completing a CV.
The technique works with data separated by
commas or tabs (Delimited) and names separated by spaces (Fixed width).
Run-on sentences are complete sentences incorrectly strung together by
commas. They are among the most common mistakes people make.
Which is down to lack of punctuation, especially
commas. Consider your banner headline from July 17: ``Don't strip off and drink plenty of water to stay cool this summer''.
