Critical Thinking: The Last Comma-Fighter

Whilst ~brb and Henry post insightful, thought-provoking articles about race and the publishing industry, I present you with this: the last of the commas.

Guest Columnist
Sarah Pottenger

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Rule #7—The Address Rule

Use commas to set off nouns of direct address, the words yes and no, interrogative tags, and mild interjections.

Example: Forgive us, Sara, for reprimanding Heather.
Example: Yes, the word count limit is 1,000.
Example: The film was faithful to the book, wasn't it?
Example: Well, cases like these are difficult to decide.

Rule #8—The Direct Quotation Rule

Use commas with expressions such as he said to set off direct quotations.

Example: The Buffy character Xander remarked, “Cowardice has an unlimited shelf life.”
Example: “I can kill you with my brain,” said River.

Rule #9—The Dates/Addresses/Titles/Numbers Rule

Use commas with dates, addresses, titles, and numbers.

*In dates, the year is set off from the rest of the sentence with a pair of commas.

Example: On March 17, 1982, Lindsay was born.

Exceptions: Commas are not needed if the date is inverted or if only the month and year are given.

Example: The new membership rules when into effect on 1 January 1994.
Example: January 1994 was an extremely cold month.

*The elements of an address or place name are separated by commas. A zip code, however, is not preceded by a comma.

Example: Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine, in 1947.
Example: Please send the package to Madeline at 708 Spring Street, Chicago, Illinois 61571.

*If a professional title follows a name, separate it from the rest of the sentence with a pair of commas.

Example: Anna Todd, M.D., has been appointed to the board.

*In numbers more than four digits long, use commas to separate the digits into groups of three, starting from the right. In numbers four digits long, a comma is optional.

Examples: 3,500 (or 3500)
100,000
5,000,000

Exceptions: Do not use commas in street numbers, zip codes, telephone numbers or years.

Rule #10—The Confusion Rule

Use a comma to prevent confusion.

In certain contexts, a comma is necessary to prevent confusion. If the writer has left out a word or phrase, for example, a comma may be needed to signal the omission.

Example: To err is human; to forgive, divine.

If two words in a row echo each other, a comma may be needed for ease of reading.

Example: All of the exciting things that we hoped would happen, happened.

Sometimes a comma is needed to prevent readers from grouping words in ways that do not match the writer's intention.

Example: Patients who can, walk up and down the halls several times a day.

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Sarah Pottenger is a long-time mentor at the teen writer's forum The Clean Place, a five-time winner of NaNoWriMo, a sci fi fan and writer, and a hater of peas. This article first appeared on The Clean Place.