COMMAS: A SUMMARY                                               Writing Center Home
            
Learning to use the comma is easy.  Here's a brief summary of the basic rules.  Click on COMMA RULES to practice.

1. Between independent (main) clauses joined by coordinating conjunctions: and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet.

2. Between introductory words, phrases, or clauses and the main clauses that follow.

3. Between items in a series.

4. Around words that add information but are not essential to the sentence’s meaning.

5. Around nonrestrictive modifiers. Nonrestrictive modifiers don’t limit the meaning of the words they describe.

6. Around sentence interrupter, including internal transitions, interjections, and words used in direct address.

7. With academic degrees, addresses, numbers, and dates.

8. Between adjectives if and could naturally be inserted between them.

9. In any part of a sentence when doing so will make the sentence clearer and easier to understand.

"The use of commas is not simply a matter of following rules.  It requires a sensitivity to the rhythms of the language, to the pace of the line, to the sense of what is being said."
                                                       --Margaret Babcock