Ten COMMAndments

The Ten COMMAndments

1. Thou shalt put a comma before the third item in a series, e.g., I would like eggs, toast, and coffee.

2. Thou shalt use a comma with a compound sentence, but not with a compound verb, e.g., She drives to school, and she parks in the student lot. cf. She drives to school and parks in the student lot.

3. Thou shalt NOT use a comma to link two main clauses, e.g., I came here to dance, I did not come here to fight. [It’s a run-on].

4. Thou shalt put a comma after a dependent adverb clause when it precedes the independent clause but not when it follows the main clause, e.g., When it rains, it pours. cf. It pours when it rains.

5. Thou shalt separate non-restrictive phrases and clauses with a comma, but not restrictive ones, e.g., Bobby, my step-brother from my father’s second marriage, is a chiropractor. cf. My step-brother Bobby is a chiropractor.

6. Thou shalt use a comma to separate adjectives that could otherwise be separated by ‘and’, e.g., I am short, balding, and middle-aged. cf. I am a grumpy old man.

7. Thou shalt use a comma to set off introductory participial and prepositional phrases, e.g., In the prologue to The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer celebrates the joys of springtime.

8. Thou shalt use a comma to show contrast, e.g., I came here to dance, not to fight.

9. Thou shalt use a comma with a simple lead-in to a quote, e.g., Macbeth says, “So foul and fair a day I have not seen.”

10. Thou shalt NOT use a comma in any parenthetical documentation unless you have multiple sources by the same author, e.g., (Dickens 334) [for prose], (Shakespeare 1.1.1) [for drama], or (Chaucer 18) [for poetry].