A Proofreader's Points on Punctuation: the Comma!

The beginning of the Chicago Manual of Style’s chapter on commas reads, “Effective use of the comma involves good judgment, with ease of reading the end in view.” It is my belief that this can be said for any punctuation mark. Punctuation is not something that should jump off the page at you, rather, it should guide the reader through the writing effortlessly. That is where my job as a copy editor/proofreader comes in!

Today I decided I am going to attack the punctuation mark people tend to struggle with the most in their writing: the comma. As a copy editor, commas are one of the most common writing errors I find - regardless of whether I am editing technical writing, academic writing, fiction writing, or writing for the Internet. People tend to be scared of commas. Rather than chance not placing a comma where one might be needed, writers will place them after every other word. 

Hopefully, these explanations and examples I provide over the next few days will help clear up the confusion.

I am going to give you one standard usage rule each day. So let’s get started!

Rule 1:

If you use a comma to set off a word or words in a sentence, then you must use a second comma if the sentence continues beyond the part you have set off.

For example:

1. On National Grammar Day, March 4th, the copy editors had dinner at The Point.
   But…
   Calling more attention to grammar on National Grammar Day, March 4th is always a busy day for copy editors.

If you removed “March 4th” from the first sentence, the sentence would still make sense. The date acts as additional information here; it sort of interrupts the sentence. So here we must set off the date with a comma both before AND after the information. However, in the second sentence, even though “March 4th” still refers to “National Grammar Day,” if you placed a comma after the date, the sentence would no longer make sense. Here the date doesn’t interrupt the sentence; it actually serves as the subject in the second (main) clause.

Tomorrow I will have another rule for you. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me!

Until tomorrow!

Your faithful copy editor/proofreader,

Laura