Tuesday Afternoon Punctuation: Commas, Part XVIII—Addresses

When addresses and place names appear in text, use commas to separate the individual elements. Think of it this way: at any point where you would start a new line when addressing an envelope, use a comma (so don’t set off abbreviations such as NE or zip codes with commas):
When touring the nation’s capital, make [...]

Tuesday Afternoon Punctuation: Commas, Part XVII—Dates

In the United States, dates are expressed using a month-day-year format. In this style, a pair of commas sets off the year from the rest of the sentence:
On September 1, 1998, I arrived in Los Angeles for the first time.
The March 27, 2009, interview yielded unexpected opportunities months later.
In the latter example, the date modifies [...]

Tuesday Afternoon Punctuation: Commas, Part XVI—As Well, Too

Reader Teresa Frohock recently raised a comma-related question that I haven’t run across in my research on the prolific punctuation mark but have often wondered about in my day-to-day writing:
This seems like a silly question, but I’ve had people remove the comma when I’ve written a sentence like this:
I went to the store, too.
Is it [...]

Happy National Punctuation Day!

What better way to celebrate than by baking a cake? At least, that’s what the holiday’s founder Jeff Rubin would have you do. You have until September 30 to come up with your punctuation-inspired concoction and compete for grammar-geek paraphernalia. For details, and more ways to celebrate, visit the NPD website.
I may have inadvertently celebrated [...]

Tuesday Afternoon Punctuation: Commas, Part XV—Absolutely

Mots Justes is nearing the end of its ongoing series on commas. Just a few more posts on this multitasking punctuation mark, and we’ll move on to the elegant semicolon, I promise!
Always use a comma to set off an absolute phrase. An absolute phrase consists of a noun followed by a participle or participial phrase [...]

Tuesday Afternoon Punctuation: Commas, Part XIV—On One Condition

Today’s punctuation scenario was probably covered by my post on introductory phrases, but I didn’t specifically address how to use commas with conditional clauses, so here goes.
Conditional clauses start with if. The action in the rest of the sentence depends on the information contained within the conditional clause:
This morning, the battery in my truck died. [...]

Tuesday Afternoon Punctuation: Commas, Part XIII—Confusion Busting

Although it might not always seem like it, punctuation is your friend. Commas especially help clarify your writing and are sometimes used simply to prevent confusion.
For example, if the same word appears twice in a row in a sentence, you may use a comma for ease of reading:
At Jeff’s stepbrother’s nuptials this weekend, the wedding [...]

Tuesday Afternoon Punctuation: Commas, Part XII—Making the Transition

A transition connects pieces of writing and shows the relationship between them. Transitions may appear between paragraphs, sentences, or parts of a sentence. They include conjunctive adverbs such as also, however, meanwhile, and therefore and transitional phrases such as for example, in addition, in fact, and on the other hand.
If a transition starts a sentence [...]

Tuesday Afternoon Punctuation: Commas, Part XI—In Other Words

Expressions such as for example, namely, and that is are usually followed by a comma. Because they introduce parenthetical information, they can be preceded by a comma or an em dash or, if they introduce an independent clause, a semicolon. They can also be enclosed with the entire phrase they introduce by parentheses or a [...]

Tuesday Afternoon Punctuation: Commas, Part IX—Contrast

One of the peskiest constructions to punctuate is not only … but also. Our instinct is to separate the two phrases with a comma, while the guides of grammar tell us not to. However, contrasting phrases beginning with words like not, not only, never, unlike, and despite often are set off with commas, even when [...]