Your Guide to Writing the Perfect Story

Commas

Welcome to the world of one of the most baffling pieces of writing techniques in mankind: commas. Both children and adults alike have difficulty with this particular piece of punctuation. I feel it's my duty to set those people straight. There are many different shape and forms of using commas. I will walk you through each one.

1. Lists

Don't even try convincing me you haven't seen this one before. It's used all the time. When you are writing out a list of things, you need to separate them somehow from each other. Here's the reason why it's so important:

Example of no commas: Sandy had chocolate milk coffee cake and a sandwich for lunch.

        Did Sandy drink milk and coffee? Did she have chocolate milk or chocolate and milk? Did she eat coffee cake or just simply cake? Did she eat both chocolate and cake for dessert? Because there are no commas in this sentence, it's very confusing.

Example using commas: Sandy had chocolate milk, coffee cake, and a sandwich for lunch.

        There are also other forms of lists like steps in a series, not just objects.

Example: He picked up his book, walked out the door, and drove to school. 

2. Conjunctions

For those of you who don't know what conjunctions are, they are words used to connect two independent sentences (and, but, for, so, nor, yet, etc). Commas are supposed to be used before them in most cases. But if the sentences are short, it is not always required. However, if you are not sure, use the comma because it will never be considered incorrect.

Example #1: Sally was looking forward to school on Monday, but she couldn't go because she was sick.

Example #2: Britney didn't go to school on Monday, nor did she want to. 

3. Introductory Sentences

Commas are used after a dependent clause (or incomplete sentence) in an introductory manner. For example, you might start a sentence with "after school ended". After school ended is not a complete thought so you would have to finish it off by adding a complete thought. To do this, you must insert a comma.

Example: After school ended, Mariam called her mother to pick her up.

        Some sentences do not require to have a comma after the introductory sentences but, again, always use one if you are unsure.

4. Transitions

Much like introductory sentences, transitions can go at the beginning of a sentence. These are generally single words like however or furthermore. After these words, you would place a comma.

Example: Lisa didn't want to work. However, her mother insisted that she get a job so she could put it on her college application.

        There's a twist to the rule, though. You can actually use the transition words in the middle of a sentence or even at the end in some cases.

Example: Her mother insisted, however, that she get a job so she could put it on her college application.

        In this case, you would have to isolate the word by putting commas on both sides of it.

Example: Lisa didn't want to work. Her mother insisted that she get a job so she could put it on her college application, however. 

        In the event that you put the transition at the end, you must put the comma before it. It's interchangeable but how you decide to form your sentence is virtually up to you.

5. Extra Information

Extra information is where you add extra information (hence the name) to a sentence that would stand complete on its own. It's generally added in the middle of a sentence and is separated by commas.

Example: Bowden, the love of her life, bought Sylvia flowers on Valentine's Day.

        You could just say "Bowden bought Sylvia flowers on Valentine's Day" but if you wanted to add extra details you need to isolate it with commas.

6. Locations/Dates

When you are talking about a city or province/state or address, you must use commas to separate each part of it. The same goes for dates.

Example #1: 7691, Fairy tale place SW, Los Angeles, California

Example #2: June 15, 1992

7. Adjectives

When you use more than one adjective in a row to describe the same noun, it is possible that you will have to use commas to separate them. Here's an easy trick to decide whether or not you need to: if you can put "and" between the two adjectives, replace it with a comma. If you can't properly use "and" it doesn't need one.

Example using "and": The tall and distinguished man turned to look at her.

Example using a comma: The tall, distinguished man turned to look at her.

        You can use a comma because and flows nicely with it.

Example not using a comma: The little old lady sat on her chair while knitting.

        This sentence is fine without a comma because you wouldn't say "the little and old lady sat on her chair while knitting". It sounds weird. 

8. Dialogue

Commas are also used in dialogue and they are very important! However, I am writing another chapter altogether about dialogue and it will be explained under there.

Thanks so much for reading! I hope this helped. There are so many rules for commas and I'm sure that I must have missed a few. If you notice one's missing, I would appreciate if you pointed it out to me.