7.2 Commas

My brother used to be a sub-editor on a daily newspaper. He would get a rough and ready news story from a reporter, and would cut and correct it. He would put their commas in the right places. He would send it to the chief sub-editor who would look over it and put his commas in the right places. He would send it to the night editor, who would approve it, and put all his commas in the right places. They all thought they were correct.

Different writers vary their use of commas, which can be confusing when you are getting to grips with the rules. In the last 40 years, English has shifted quite radically to using as few commas as possible. Someone who went to university in the 1960s will have learned different rules from accepted contemporary practice. However, this does not mean that you can put commas wherever you like. Commas provide the internal structure or map of each sentence. They mark out which bits of the sentence are essential to its meaning and which bits are supplementary. They show where clauses start and stop, and they separate items in lists. Getting them in the right place keeps the movement of the sentence clear, but having too many can slow down your reader and make the sentence seem cluttered and fussy. Here are some rules to observe:

USE A COMMA:

To link two sentences with a conjunction (and, but, because, etc): this makes a compound sentence. There are three examples of this kind of sentence in the passage above. For example, the second sentence could be split into two:

He would get a rough and ready news story from a reporter. He would cut and correct it.

I have chosen to link the two sentences with a comma and the word and to emphasise that I want the reader to take both sections as part of the same event. However, a comma cannot link two sentences by itself. If I insert a comma but miss out the word and, I create a comma splice (see page 13-14).

The second last sentence has a similar structure. Here I have used but to emphasise the contrast. Technically it is possible to link together several sentences with commas to make a very long, complex sentence. Karl Marx and Pierre Bourdieu do this all the time in their writing, but you should avoid it. Limit yourself to one conjunction per sentence where possible. It is always better to write short, clear sentences in essays.

After connective adverbs: These words are very useful at the start of sentences in essays as they show how your argument is moving from sentence to sentence. However, yet, still, nevertheless, therefore, thus, moreover, for example, etc, can be used to suggest a connection or contrast between two sentences without formally joining them. A comma is required after one of these when it appears at the beginning of a sentence.

However, you will always make occasional mistakes.

However is particularly problematic. If you leave out this comma, it sounds like the whole sentence is a subordinate clause which should lead to some other statement. If however is operating as part of a subordinate clause, the comma goes after the clause:

However much you try, you will always make occasional mistakes.

This is easy to get wrong, so look out for this one.

Though and although cannot be used as connective adverbs at the start of sentences: X Although, many people try to do so. They can, however, be used at the start of a subordinate clause:

Although Durkheim has been thoroughly criticised, his ideas remain influential.

To separate items in a list: This works for nouns and adjectives:

Edward Sapir wrote grammars of several languages, a general book on language, essays on personality and even poetry. He was remembered by his colleagues as having a piercing, inquisitive mind.

If you have three or more items, use and between the last two. Avoid listing verbs and adverbs. One at a time is quite enough.

To signal parenthesis: Commas can be used like brackets to insert an extra piece of information, interesting or otherwise, into a sentence. Reread that last sentence without the words between the two commas. It still makes sense. The phrase between the commas is not a complete sentence. In this case it is a modifying phrase, which adds some extra information or comment about the preceding noun. The first comma signals a short diversion from the sentence. The second comma shows that this is finished, and the sentence picks up where it left off. You could insert a different kind of phrase or clause here, such as ‘or even a witty aside’ or ‘if you have any extra information to insert’.

Parentheses have great comic potential, but try to resist the temptation to use them in essays for hilarious remarks that probably will not seem so funny to your marker. Also avoid using them to include lists of things that you would like to mention but cannot be bothered to include properly in a working sentence:

X Asylums describes many aspects of patients’ lives, close observation by staff, lack of privacy and limited sources of personal identity, which give us the sense of the ‘impoderabilia’ of daily living.

Here it would be better to say:

Asylums describes many aspects of patients’ lives. It covers their close observation by staff, lack of privacy and limited sources of personal identity, which combine to give the reader a sense of social complexity.

The second version sounds less muddled. Try to avoid long, rambling diversions in sentences, or diversions within a diversion. One short phrase is fine, but if your parenthesis is any longer than ten words, you should consider putting this information in a sentence of its own.

If you do use commas to form a parenthesis, make sure you close it. You would not use just one bracket. In fact, avoid using brackets and dashes wherever possible. Good use of commas is much more elegant.

To mark out clauses: If you are hazy about what a clause is, you need to read something that will explain the basics of grammar slowly and carefully. See the list at the end of Section B for some further reading.

Traditional grammar is very careful to note every shift in the syntax of a sentence by inserting a comma. (See two letters on page 10.) Modern writing is more relaxed about this. Look at sentences four and five in the opening paragraph about commas on page 11. These sentences are grammatically identical, but I have only put commas in one of them so that you can see the two styles in action. Aptly enough, the chief sub-editor liked to take commas out whenever possible, while the night editor liked to put them back in. In that particular case it does not make much difference. The syntax works either way.

Some clauses do not need to be separated by commas, especially when a linking word such as that, whenever, since etc. is used. However, commas can make a dramatic difference to the meaning of a sentence. Leaving them out can make a sentence ambiguous. Use commas to make your meaning apparent, not just to provide pauses where you think the reader needs a rest. The easiest way to get this right is to be absolutely clear in your own head about what you want to say, and to say it as simply as possible in short sentences. You will find a quick explanation of clauses on page 17, which should help.

To introduce speech: A comma is used to introduce speech or a quotation when it forms part of the preceding or following sentence:

 Dima said, ‘Without deer there is no culture, nothing.’

or

• ‘Without deer there is no culture, nothing,’ said Dima.

You can also use a colon to introduce a quotation or speech:

 Dima said, ‘Without deer there is no culture, nothing.’

Always use a colon when the quotation follows a complete sentence:

 Dima told me one of those perfect statements that I had to write down immediately: ‘Without deer there is no culture, nothing.’

DO NOT USE COMMAS

To join sentences without a conjunction: This creates a comma splice, which comes a close second to dodgy apostrophes on the marker’s hate-list.

A comma splice looks like this:

X Some markers are sent into a rage by comma splices, they will give themselves a hernia with fury, and will cover your essay in red pen.

It should read:

 Some markers are sent into a rage by comma splices. They will give themselves a hernia with fury, and will cover your essay in red pen.

or

 Some markers are sent into a rage by comma splices; they will give themselves a hernia with fury, and will cover your essay in red pen.

Oddly enough, this quirk was tolerated more in the nineteenth century. So, you will sometimes see comma splices, which would now get red pen all over them, used by very stylish and correct writers, such as Robert Louis Stevenson or Ralph Waldo Emerson. This just proves that the language is alive and constantly changing, but it is not worth arguing this point with your tutor.

Learn the current rules and follow them. My experience as a marker suggests that the comma splice is a common mistake of bright students who read quickly and think coherently. Sometimes certain ideas seem so connected that one instinctively wants to put them in the same sentence. However, linking these is no longer the job of the comma. If you really want to run together two sentences that seem to connect, consider a semi-colon (see below). It is an under-used punctuation resource. Alternatively include a conjunction, and, but, so, or, for etc. Connective adverbs such as however, yet, still, nevertheless, therefore, thus, moreover etc. are not strong enough to join two sentences. If you want to use one of these, stop the sentence and start again. If you are a fast reader, keep a special lookout for comma splices as you proofread.