Are you in a Comma Conundrum?

Let's sharpen your knowledge of those funny little deformed full stops.

It may surprise lots of writers that many people still struggle to wrap their heads around how to use commas effectively. Not only are they essential in any piece of prose, but they can be used in a variation of different ways – and it's key that you know how they function.

So what's the best way you to remember how these little pests work? Well, just LISTEN. (As in the acronym below, not a passive aggressive remark...)

Acronyms aren't everyone's cup of tea – especially if you struggle to remember what the specific letters in the word stand for. But to support our understanding – and to help us avoid those ever-so-easy mistakes to make – I have demonstrated below how you can use commas in different ways.

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1 – In a list

Use commas to separate items in a list. For example:

Jason woke up on Saturday with a mission to repair the roof, garden shed, and the next door neighbour's fence.

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2 – For Introductions

Use commas to introduce a character, setting or specific activity or action. For example:

After the football game, Jason returned home because he still hadn't fixed the rood, garden shed and the next door neighbour's fence.

(As you have noticed above, I have used the initial comma to indicate what happened prior to something else. This is an easy way to show your reader the order in which things are happening. You can also do the same with the word 'before' – for example:

Before he went home, Jason went to the shop.

Or the other way around – like this:

Jason went to the shop, before returning to work on the roof.

This is a refreshing alternative to repeatedly using the word 'then' or 'next'. Top tip: most readers don't need to be told specifically when things are happening, as the usual assumption is that the narrative is chronological – unless you've incorporated flashbacks or flash-forwards. Time-connecting words are more present in fiction for children, or in recipes.

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3 – To Separate Clauses

Commas are essential for separating clauses. For example:

Jason learnt that he didn't have enough tiles to repair the roof, so he went to the shop to buy some more.

A great trick to remember this is to think about breaths. When speaking this line, you would naturally take a breath after the word roof, even if it was a small one. However, there are occasions when considering where we take breaths doesn't quite work, such in the sentence below:

Jason didn't want to go the shop, the woman behind the till scared him.

This sentence is incorrect because it uses a Comma Splice, which is when we use a comma to link two clauses together as opposed to a semicolon. Semicolons link similar clauses together in this instance, so the sentence should read as follows:

Jason didn't want to go the shop; the woman behind the till scared him.

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4 – As Parentheses

Commas can also be used as parentheses – like brackets or dashes. Here is an example:

Jason, who fell off his roof, was rushed to hospital.

The information inside the commas is an additional clauses, and – in this case – offers the reader some additional information. A good way to check if you've used these correctly, is to read the sentence without this additional clauses, to see if still makes sense. Be careful, however, not to use too many of these in your writing – it'll start to sound contrived, and the pacing will feel very two steps forward, three steps back.

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5 – To Place Emphasis

Commas can be used to place emphasis on certain words in a sentence, for example:

It was cold, very cold, that night.

This use of commas works especially well with repetition, or to show a character taking more breaths between words. You could, of course, go the extra mile and put the words 'very cold' in the clause above in italics to place further emphasis on them.

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6 – To Organise Proper Nouns

Finally, commas can be used to organise things like the names of places in addresses. Here's an example:

She lives at Number 7, Newberry Lane, Oxford.

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Do you have any questions about commas? Have you experienced any similar conundrums? Feel free to comment below.

Thanks for reading!