Mrs. Moran’s Writing and Grammar Class

Use a comma and a coordinate conjunction to form a compound sentence. Suzy walked to school but it was not far.

Use a comma after a long introductory phrase. Without a thought for his own safety Nathan rescued the dog.

Use a comma after an introductory dependent clause. Although Alan followed the instructions he still could not fix his computer.

Use commas between items in a series. Scott bought burgers chips and a drink at the game.

Although the comma before the conjunction is usually optional, it must be present if the items contain more than one word. Scott bought a burger with onions Cool Ranch Doritos and a cherry slurpy.

Use a comma between coordinate adjectives. Sally rested her arm on the thin green leather book as she thought.

Do not use commas in front of a common usage. The agile speedy baseball player scooped up the grounder to short.

Use commas to set off nouns of direct address. I told you Jack that I am faster than you.

Use commas to set off parenthetical elements. Sally of course was able to start the computer herself.

Use commas to set off a non-restrictive appositive. Mr. Ingerson our world history teacher often must act as an umpire in departmental meetings.

Do not use commas to set off a restrictive appositive. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird was the only book ever published by author Harper Lee.

Use commas to set off a non-restrictive adjective clause. To Kill a Mockingbird which was written by Harper Lee is the only book she ever published.

Do not use commas to set off a restrictive adjective clause. The man who is juggling is my brother.

Use commas with dates. Jeremy left for Nags Head on August for one last weekend at the beach.

Use commas with addresses. Marie’s family lived at 563 Linden Avenue Chicago Illinois when he was born.