Learn How To Use Commas Properly

Learn How To Use Commas Properly

The comma is the most frequently used internal mark of punctuation. Of all the marks of punctuation, it has the widest variety of uses.

Using commas with dates, addresses, greetings, names, and large numbers

* Commas are used with full dates (month, day, and year) but omitted with partial dates (month and year):

1. Gas has been first used by the Germans on October 14, 1914, when they fired a prototype of modern tear gas from artillery near Pyres. – Paul Fussel
2. In June 1985 Beth Henley was working on her fifth play.

Exception: No comma is used to separate parts of a date that begins with the day.

The atomic bomb was first dropped on 6 August 1945.

* Commas are required between most of the elements in place names and addresses:

1. Miami, Dade County, Florida
2. Writing Lab, University of California, Riverside

Exception: # Do not use comma to separate street number from the name of the street:

15 Amsterdam Avenue

# Do not use comma to separate a state from zip code:

5625 Waverly Avenue, La Jolla, California 92037

* In complete sentence, a comma must follow the last element of place name, addresses, or dates:

1. He shot himself twice, once in the chest and then in the head, in a police station in Washington, D.C., with the cops looking on. – Red Smith
2. July 4, 1776, was the day the Declaration of Independence was signed.

* Commas are used to set off the names of someone directly addressed in the sentence:

A few years ago, Mr. Taplow, I spoke to you about the possibility of a summer job.

* Commas are used after the greeting in a friendly or informal letter, and after the closing of the letter of any kind:

Dear Mary,
Sincerely,
Yours truly,

* Commas are used to set off titles or degrees after a person’s name:

Barbara Kane, M.D., delivered the commencement address.

Exception: But Jr., Sr. may be written without commas:

Sammy Davis Jr. started his singing career at age four.

* The comma is used after the last part of a proper name when the last part comes first:

Lunt, George D.

* Commas are used to mark groups of three digits in large numbers, counting from the right:

Antarctica is 5,400,000 square miles of ice-covered land.

Using commas with conjunctions

* The comma is used before a conjunction (and, but, for, or, nor, so, yet) linking two independent clauses.

Canadians watch America closely, but most Americans know little about Canada.

Exception: Some very brief independent clauses may not require a comma.

1. We dickered and then we made a deal. – Red Smith
2. I have seen the future and now I’m tired of it. – Gerald Nachman

* If one or both independent clauses have internal punctuation (especially commas), a writer might choose to separate two clauses with a semicolon and a coordinating conjunction so that the reader can easily see the main division of the sentence.

Genetically, we are nearly identical to mankind fifty thousand years ago; and some of us delight in the continuity represented by this, while others may be appalled. – Edward Hoagland

* Comma alone should be used between two independent clauses (comma splice):

“I plan to travel to England”, my friend said happily. “I want to visit Shakespeare’s birthplace.”

* When a conjunction adverb joins the independent clauses in a compound sentence, it is preceded by a semicolon:

Petra was absent on Friday; consequently, she missed the chemistry test.

* The use of a comma to join coordinate clauses is more common in novels, stories, and some types of journalistic writing than it is in serious expository prose. Although it is hard to make general statements here, it is safe to say this practice is the exception, not the rule. The comma is used by most writers to join coordinate clauses in the following situation:

# When the series of sentences takes the form of a climax:

1. I came, I saw, I conquered.
2. The leaves are turning to gold, squirrels are fattening, hunting time is near.

# When the statements form an antithesis, or are arranged in the “it was not merely this, it was mainly that” formula:
1. It was more than an annoyance, it was a pang. – Winston S. Churchill
2. To allow the Mahdi to enter Khartoum would not merely mean to return the whole of the Sudan to barbarism, it would be a menace to the safety of Egypt herself. – Lyton Strachey

BONUS : Learn How To Win

Life is impossible without difficulties. The moment we are born to this world, life gives us trials every day. Some of us overcome their ups and downs without sticking on them. Others tend to experience difficulties more often, in their lives run of bad luck lasts for a rather long time. It would be logical to ask why? Who divides people into successful and unsuccessful? Probably they do it themselves. The people take negative life circumstances quite differently. “Losers “regard them as defeats, whereas “winners” perceive them as some valuable life lesson to enrich their life experience. The main rule of “winners “is the thesis: “there are no defeats, but there is a feedback”. Such life approach allows them to acquire severe life lessons more easily and advance to their aim.

If a new dissatisfying situation arises, people act differently depending on their common behaviour strategy. Let’s see how people of these two categories react to difficulties. The loser’s strategy. “Something is wrong again…” When he does not attain the desirable result the loser experiences strong emotional discomfort that prevents him to evaluate the situation objectively. He transforms this negative experience onto other situations in his life. The winner’s strategy. What is the result? A person tries to separate this situation from the rest and give an objective analysis of facts. The loser’s strategy. Who is to blame? A person searches for the guilty. In most cases he blames the circumstances, more rarely people and almost never himself. The winner’s strategy. What have I learnt? A person is trying to find positive things in the situation. If you are given a lemon instead of apple – make lemonade. The loser’s strategy. Why did it happen? (Fixing on the past). All the thoughts are concentrated on the negative experience. The winner’s strategy. How do I want to use it? (Fixing on the future). A winner has a dream. That is why he reflects how this experience can contribute in approaching his aim. The loser’s strategy. Limiting his future. “I will never swallow the same bate“. The winner’s strategy. New opportunities. How can I act more effectively in the future?

As you see from the above examples the winner has a positive outlook and he is learning every day he lives. A winner is not a person who never loses. More likely a winner is someone who takes lessons from his mistakes and every day does something to approach his dream.