LET

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LETS TALK GRAMMARFROM THE COMMA SUTRA
COMMAS IN THE REAL WORLD

• Written by Mamie Webb Hixon
• UWF Writing Lab Director
• PowerPoint Created by Lindsey Manning
• Writing Lab Graduate Assistant

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Are You a Comma-kazi?--a destroyer of sentence
meaning?

• Lets eat Grandma! -----gt Lets eat, Grandma!
• While we were eating a rattlesnake approached our
  campsite. ---gt ?
• If you cook Ingrid will wash the dishes.--gt ?
• A kamikazi is defined by Dictionary.com as the
  following
• 3. a person or thing that behaves in a wildly
  reckless or destructive manner.

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THE OXFORD COMMA

• Stephen Colbert (6/3/10) quoting Strunk and White
  in defense of the "Oxford comma.
•  
• http//www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-vi
  deos/310042/june-03-2010/vampire-weekend

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USING COMMAS PURPOSEFULLY Deanine the intern is
enrolled in a business class. Deanine, the
intern is enrolled in a business class. Deanine,
the intern, is enrolled in a business class.
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• The performing, literary, and visual arts
• Voice mail, call waiting, caller ID, and much
  more
• Fast service, free shipping, big savings
• three televised presidential debates in 1984,
  1988, and 1992
• Congress, the White House, and national politics.
• U.S. News World Report, the Atlanta
  Journal-Constitution, and the Boston Globe.
•  

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USE COMMAS TO SEPARATE ITEMS IN A SERIES.
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• Links, pictures and quotes
• UWF students can choose from undergraduate
  degrees in 50 different areas, master's degrees
  in 24 different areas, two specialist degrees and
  a doctorate in education.

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THE OPTIONAL COMMA PRECEDING AND STILL APPLIES.
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• Cash or check or debit card
• The Postmans Creed Neither rain nor snow nor
  sleet nor dark of night shall stay these couriers
  from the swift completion of their appointed
  rounds.

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NO COMMAS IF ALL ITEMS ARE JOINED BY A
COORDINATING CONJUNCTION
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• Online and mail-order shopping can be convenient
  and timesaving with appropriate precautions, and
  they are safe as well.
• No one writes letters anymore, or so it seems.
•  
• People are turning to e-mail and the Internet to
  pay bills and keep in touch, so no one writes
  letters anymore.
•  
• Parents once automatically gave their children
  the father's surname, but some no longer do.
•  
• Instead, they bestow the mother's name, for they
  believe that the mother's importance should be
  recognized.
•  
• Many women are concerned about breast cancer, and
  many men face a similar health worry with
  prostate cancer.
•  
• Growing old is mandatory, but growing up is
  optional.

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USE A COMMA TO SEPARATE TWO SENTENCES SEPARATED
BY A COORDINATING CONJUNCTION. 
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• Television advertising is expensive and sometimes
  very effective.
•  
• The recently built childrens amusement park has
  been called a boon to the community by its
  supporters and an eyesore by its harshest
  critics.
•  
• Losing weight causes fat cells to shrink and
  become less metabolically active.
•  
• Are you the result of what has happened to you or
  what youve made happen?
• To be or not to be, that is the question.

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NO COMMA TO SEPARATE COMPOUND ELEMENTS WITHIN A
SENTENCE 
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• I came, I saw, I nothinged.
• Dont ask , dont tell.

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USE A COMMA TO SEPARATE SHORT THREE- TO FOUR-WORD
SENTENCES IN A SERIES.
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• T. Boone Pickens explains his plan for
  alternative, domestic energy in a 60-second TV
  commercial.
• A three-hour, in-depth CSPAN interview

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USE COMMAS TO SEPARATE A SERIES OF
INTERCHANGEABLE ADJECTIVES.
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• The incredible edible egg
• Innovative new technology
• Free digital television
• Affordable health insurance
• A United States drivers license

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NO COMMAS TO SEPARATE ADJECTIVES THAT ARE NOT
INTERCHANGEABLE
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• Thank you, staff members, for your support.
• This is a bogus email, isnt it?
• Military members, we appreciate you for your
  service to our country.
•  

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USE COMMAS TO SET OFF WORDS IN DIRECT ADDRESS AND
TAG QUESTIONS.
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• December 7, 1941, is a date which will live in
  infamy.
•  
• By law, households will need to
• take steps to receive a digital television
  signal by February
• 17, 2009, when all full- power stations
  must
• begin broadcasting only in
• digital.

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USE COMMAS AFTER ITEMS IN A DATE.
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• People can request a converter box between
  January 2011 and March 2012.

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NO COMMAS IF DATE CONSISTS OF ONLY TWO ITEMS
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• Lombard Street in San Francisco, California, is
  billed as the most crooked street in the world.
• 155 N. Crescent Drive, Beverly Hills, California
  90210, is an address in one of Californias
  ritziest neighborhoods, where apartments are
  7,500 a month.

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USE COMMAS TO SEPARATE GEOGRAPHIC ITEMS FROM THE
SENTENCE.
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• For a college student, picking a major is no easy
  task. Whether a student's dream is starting his
  or her own business, going into the medical
  field, or broadcasting to the world, the 10,380
  students enrolled at the University of West
  Florida have many options.
•  
• Yes, portmanteaus for celebrities include Desilu,
  Billary, Bennifer, Brangelina, and Nickariah.
• If it werent for the war, terrorism, and the
  election, 2004 might well be remembered as the
  Year of the Search.
• Whenever you travel by car, buckle your seat
  belt.

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USE A COMMA AFTER INTRODUCTORY ELEMENTS WORDS,
PHRASES, AND CLAUSES.
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• Buckle your seat belt whenever you travel by car.

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NO COMMA WHEN THE INTRODUCTORY ELEMENT IS AT THE
END OF THE SENTENCE
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• Greys Anatomy, a drama centered on the personal
  and professional lives of five surgical interns
  and their supervisors, airs on the ABC network.
•  
• Shonda Rhimes, its creator, lives in Los Angeles.

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USE A COMMA TO SEPARATE A NONRESTRICTIVE
APPOSITIVE FROM THE WORD IT RENAMES. 
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• Greys Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes accepted the
  award for Outstanding Drama Series.
• The TV series Greys Anatomy is centered on the
  personal and professional lives of five surgical
  interns and their supervisors.
• Nathaniel Hawthornes book The Scarlet
  Letter is an
• American classic.

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NO COMMAS TO SEPARATE RESTRICTIVE INFORMATION
FROM THE WORD IT RENAMES
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• Denver, which is known as the Mile-High City, is
  the capital of Colorado.

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USE COMMAS TO SEPARATE NONRESTRICTIVE
WHICH-CLAUSES.
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• The city which is the capital of Colorado has an
  altitude of one mile.

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NO COMMA TO SEPARATE RESTRICTIVE WHICH-CLAUSES
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• The speakers comments, however, had the
  unintended effect of catapulting the politically
  incorrect statement into mainstream speech.
• Her comments, of course, spawned a number of
  blogs.

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USE COMMAS TO SEPARATE INTERRUPTERS AND
PARENTHETICAL WORDS AND PHRASES FROM THE REST OF
THE SENTENCE.
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• Barack Obama famously said, Were the ones weve
  been waiting for.
• "The growth of the Internet, electronic
  communications, and electronic commerce has
  affected the U. S. Postal Service, said the
  Postmaster General.

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USE A COMMA TO SEPARATE A DIRECT QUOTATION FROM
ITS EXPLANATORY TAG.
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• The word blog is a portmanteau, not an
  abbreviation or an acronym, for web log.
• The idea was met with acceptance, not anger.
• Every job is a self-portrait of the person who
  did it, so autograph your work with excellence,
  not mediocrity.

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USE A COMMA TO SEPARATE CONTRASTING STATEMENTS
FROM THE REST OF THE SENTENCE.
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• The King dynasty includes Martin Luther King,
  Jr., and Martin Luther King III.
• MLK earned a doctorate degree, so his name can be
  written Martin Luther King, Ph.D.

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USE A COMMA TO SEPARATE AN ACADEMIC OR BIRTH RANK
TITLE SUCH AS JR. OR SR. FROM A NAME, BUT NO
COMMA IS USED BETWEEN A NAME AND A ROMAN NUMERAL
BIRTH RANK.
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