COMMAS
1) Commas Between Items in a Series
Ex: Last semester I took math, reading, and composition.
item
, , ,
item
item
and item
2) Commas in Compound Sentence
Ex: Tom missed class yesterday, and he called to ask me what he missed.
Sentence
,
for – and – nor – but – or – yet – so Sentence
(coordinating conjunctions: fanboys)
3) Commas after Introductory Word Groups
Ex: According to the paper, the crime rate went down.
Introductory word or word group
,
Main part of sentence
4) Commas around Appositives and Interrupters
Appositive: A phrase that renames a noun and is directly before or after the noun.
 Another phenomenon, air rage, involves out-of-control and often intoxicated passengers on an
airplane.
 One famous air rage incident, a confrontation between a drunken businessman and flight
attendant, ended with the passenger tied to his seat for the rest of the flight.
Interrupter: An aside or transition that interrupts the flow of a sentence and does not affect its meaning.
 Road rage, as most people have heard, occurs when an angry driver overreacts.
 Ground rage, as the name suggests, occurs in the terminal, not in the air.
Essential appositives: Sometimes, an appositive is essential to the meaning of a sentence. When a
sentence would not have the same meaning without the appositive, the appositive should not be set off
with commas.
 The actor John Travolta has never won an Academy Award.
 The lawyer Clarence Darrow was one of history’s greatest speakers.
5) Commas around Adjective Clauses
Adjective Clause: A group of words that often begins with who, which, or that. It has a subject and verb
and describes the noun right before it in a sentence. If you can take the clause out of the sentence
without changing the meaning of the sentence, put commas around it.
 The mayor, who was recently elected, has no political experience.
 SuperShop, which is the largest supermarket in town, was recently bought by Big Boy Markets.
Noun
,
Noun
Adjective Clause
Essential to meaning
,
Rest of Sentence
Adjective Clause
Rest of Sentence
Not essential to meaning