To Suck or Not To Suck? [Writing Tips]

|17| Come On With The Commas

Requested by: -lunatix

Thanks for requesting!

Forever ago, I might add. Sorry about that, Annica. I'm a very bad procrastinator.

But onto commas. For some reason, I love commas. I think I'd go as far as to say they are my favorite punctuation mark.

Yes, I have a favorite punctuation mark.

Commas indicate a brief pause and, as is the case with most types of punctuations, can be used for multiple reasons.

These reasons include (but not limited to):

-To separate words and word groups in a simple series of three or more items: Without Pringles, Pepsi, and powered donuts, my snack life would be rather bland.

*The comma coming after "Pepsi" is known as the Oxford comma, and at times it can be deemed unnecessary and dropped.

-To separate adjectives that are interchangeable: It was a slow, unproductive day.

-After a word used to introduce a sentence (ex: well, hey, yes): Hello, how are you?

-To separate a city from its state: New Orleans, Louisiana.

-And, my favorite use of the comma, the one that interrupts the sentence flow: Jeopardy, as I'll have you know, is quality programming.

There are so many uses for commas and sometimes we forget to use them.

On here I'll see things just typed out on the page with spaces. No commas at all.

Listen people: we need commas!

We need all punctuation!

Let us all keep that in mind.

To Suck

Not using commas. Simple as that. I can't imagine a world without commas, and everyone else shouldn't be able to either.

Not To Suck

Use your punctuation the way they're supposed to be used. Don't just toss in any random commas. Read your sentence out loud, and if you feel as if you should take a pause after a certain word, you more than likely should.

*A topic of originality is coming up next.

Got a request for a topic you're having trouble with? Tell it to me in the comments or, if you want, drop me a PM and I'll leave you anonymous.

I'm here to help, so don't be shy!