Grammar in Action – Commas with Introductory Elements

A few weeks ago we looked at using commas with introductory elements (and when not to use them). I thought these examples and their counterparts were great examples of those rules.

After the game they headed out to celebrate their win.

After the game was over, they headed out to celebrate their win.


Watching the movie while eating our popcorn, we decided to make this our new Sunday night tradition.

Watching the movie while eating our popcorn IS our Sunday night tradition.

A Dozen Uses for Commas, Part 9

This week, in Part 9 of our comma series, we're going to look at a common misuse of commas. Because we've stressed the importance of using commas between two independent clauses to prevent run-on sentences in your transcripts, it's easy to overuse commas with conjunctions in sentences. However, the important part of the rule is that a commas should precede a conjunction when the clauses on both sides of the conjunction are independent or could stand alone as complete sentences.

Transcribing at home is a privilege and a blessing, and working as an independent contractor is a huge responsibility.

Transcribing at home is a privilege and a blessing. Working as an independent contractor is a huge responsibility.

Because both of these sentences make sense when on their own, we include the comma before the conjunction when joining them together.

On the other hand, sometimes a sentence includes two verbs (or actions) but is what's known as a compound predicate. Without getting too detailed, the bottom line is that the second half of these sentences do not make sense without the first, and therefore there should NOT be a comma between the two verbs or verb phrases.

INCORRECT: I am privileged to work at home, and blessed to have this opportunity.

Because "Blessed to have this opportunity" simply does not make sense when written by itself, the comma in the above example is incorrect and should be omitted.

CORRECT: I am privileged to work at home and blessed to have this opportunity.

A few more examples:

INCORRECT: I work at home as a general transcriptionist, and contract with large transcription companies.

CORRECT: I work at home as a general transcriptionist and contract with large transcription companies.


INCORRECT: I love to eat frozen grapes, and add them to punch.

CORRECT: I love to eat frozen grapes and add them to punch.

A Dozen Uses for Commas, Part 8

This week, as we continue looking at the many uses of commas, we’re focusing on one of the simplest and most common uses: separating the elements of dates, geographical locations, addresses and titles in names. I don't think these need much explanation, so how about a DO and DON'T list instead?

DO:
Phoenix, Arizona
September 1, 2008
1234 Main Street, St. George, UT 84760
Martin Luther King, Jr.

DON'T:
1234 Main Street, Dallas, TX, 75201 (the last comma is unnecessary)
September, 2008

A Dozen Uses for Commas, Part 7

As part of our series on commas, we're look at the many uses of commas as well as some of the places where they should NOT be used. This week we're talking about using commas with coordinative adjectives.

Coordinate adjectives refer to those adjectives which both (or all, when there are more than two) describe the same item and are given equal weight in their description. The order of these adjectives does not affect the meaning and the word "and" could be inserted between them as well. Commas should be used between these coordinative adjectives. For example:

The rough, bumpy, dusty road is the worst part of my husband's commute.

Each of those adjectives describes the road itself, and we could also say "The rough AND bumpy AND dusty road…" or "The bumpy and dusty and rough road…" without changing the meaning of the sentence.

On the other hand, if I refer to "The rough, bumpy gravel road…," I do NOT put a comma between bumpy and gravel because both rough and bumpy are subordinate adjectives used to describe the "gravel road."

Likewise, it's important not to put the comma between the final adjective and the noun itself. In the first example above, you would NOT punctuate it as, "The rough, bumpy, dusty, road is the worst part of my husband's commute," because we don't want to separate the adjective group from the noun it's describing.

A Dozen Uses for Commas, Part 6

Wow, we're halfway through our comma series. We've talked about using commas with conjunctions, serial commas, using commas after introductory elements (and when NOT to use a comma) and setting off nonessential items. (Whew, say that three times fast!)

Today we're going to look at which essential items should NOT be set off by commas.

First, a quick review:

Popcorn, one of my favorite foods, is a great snack.

The italicized portion of sentence does not change the meaning of the sentence and could be omitted, making it a nonessential item.

On the other hand, phrases that start with "that" are essential to the meaning and cannot be set off with commas:

The popcorn that I make is a great snack.

Omitting "that I make" from the sentence changes its meaning and therefore this phrase is essential to the sentence.

An important note here: "that" is often itself an overused word. In cases where the "that" is not explicitly stated, the rule still applies:

The popcorn I make is a great snack.

The popcorn in the kitchen is a great snack.

A Dozen Uses for Commas, Part 5

We've been talking about commas for more than a month, and this week I think it's time to talk about serial commas. Serial commas refer to the use of commas between items in a list, and this is admittedly a controversial topic. (Somehow that sentence makes me laugh. People get worked up over grammar? Oh, wait, I'm one of those people.)

Unfortunately, like the dreaded punctuation-inside-quotes rule, the majority does not seem to be going my way on this one.

Personally, I do NOT put a comma before the conjunction in a series or list:

Today we're going to go for a walk, play a game and take a nap.

To me, a comma implies a *pause*, and I think the conjuction takes the place of that pause in a series.

However, current grammar rules are suggesting that that final comma should be included. I say "current" because the pendulum has swung back and forth on this one several times, and I say "suggesting" because it's not a hard and fast rule.

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You should check with your contracts and clients on their preferences, but in my experience, they do not have one except that you be consistent throughout your transcripts regardless of which way you choose.

A Dozen Uses for Commas, Part 4

Last week we talked about using commas with introductory elements (for the rest of the series, click here). As promised, this week we're going to look at when NOT to use them with introductory elements or psuedo-introductory elements.

First, a comma should not be used if the introductory prepositional phrase is less than five words:

Under the pile the one page she was looking for remained hidden.

Over dinner they talked about some work-at-home opportunities.

Secondly, sometimes a phrase may seem like an introductory phrase at first glance (or first listen!), when in fact it's not. The key is to remember never to separate the main subject of the sentence from the verb/action/predicate.

Waking up super early to work is definitely the hardest part of my current schedule.

Waking up super early to work, she needed a cup of coffee to get going.

Do you see the difference between these two sentences? In the first the psuedo-introductory element is actually the subject of the sentence, and it cannot be separated from "is" with a comma. In the second, it's an introductory – and nonessential – element.

Let's look at one more:

Pursuing a career as a work-at-home transcriptionist offers an amazing opportunity for many people.

Pursuing a career as a work-at-home transcriptionist, she was confident that she could earn what she needed to stay home with her kids.

A Dozen Uses for Commas, Part 3

We've talked about using commas with conjunctions to join independent clauses and setting off nonessential or parenthetical elements in a sentence. Next, as part of our series on commas, we're going to look at using them after introductory clauses, phrases or words at the beginning of sentences.

There is a lot of detailed information in understanding the hows and whys of comma usage with introductory elements, so I'm going to try to simplify it for transcription purposes, but if I oversimplify it and you need more of an explanation, let me know. You can also visit Purdue's Online Writing Lab (OWL) for more details.

First, let's define those introductory elements.

An introductory clause begins with an adverb such as although, because, while, if, etc.

Although she was very tired, she knew that she had to get her work done.

Because he'd always wanted to work at home, he decided to pursue transcription.

An introductory phrase is different than a clause because it doesn't have a separate subject and verb (for example, if you take the adverb off the clauses in italics above, they are complete sentences, making them clauses rather than phrases). These phrases come in a variety of flavors. Without going into the nitty gritty details, the important part of the rule is to use a comma after an introductory phrase that is either five or more words long or is followed by an audible pause when spoken verbally.

Running as fast as she could, she was able to get the ball before it rolled out into the street.

In order to get my work done on time, I had to get up at 3:30 a.m.

Introductory words include "however," "still," "meanwhile," et cetera and provide continuity between sentences.

However, I do love being a WAHM.

Next week, we'll look when not to use a comma with introductory elements and pseudo-introductory elements. In the meantime, test your understanding with this quiz from Purdue's OWL.

A Dozen Uses for Commas, Part 2

Today is Part 2 in our series on properly using commas. Last week, we talked about using commas with conjunctions to join independent clauses. This week, we're going to talk about using commas to set of nonessential or parenthetical elements of a sentence.

The Online Writing Lab from Purdue University offers these three questions to help you decided whether a word, phrase or clause is essential or nonessential:

1. If the word/phrase/clause is left out, does the sentence still make sense?
2. Does the word/phrase/clause interrupt the flow of the sentence?
3. If you move the word/phrase/clause to different positions within the sentence, does it still make sense?

If you answer yes to one or more of these questions, then the element should be set off by commas like the examples below:

Mr. Magoo, who preferred chocolate to vanilla, declined the cake that the hostess offered him.

The audio seemed clear enough. When she started transcribing it, however, she had trouble making out what the speaker was saying.

A Dozen Uses for Commas, Part 1

Commas are one of the most important – as well as overused and misused – punctuation marks in English grammar. There are dozens of situations that call for commas and an equal number of situations where a comma should not be used. While the use of commas may seem confusing, understanding the actual rules around them eliminates a lot of the ambiguity and provides guidance for making the decision on how to punctuate convuluted sentences.

To start, let's look at using commas with conjunctions to join independent clauses.

Shaina talked about coordinating conjunctions and their role once before. As she mentioned, a comma should be used before a conjunction that joins two independent clauses. As with most of the English language, there are exceptions to this rule, such as when the comma is left out as a matter of style. However, while a comma may be used after "so" at the beginning of a sentence (when it is functioning as an introductory word rather than a conjunction), it is extremely rare to put a comma after coordinating conjunctions.

The following sentences are some examples of properly using commas and coordinating conjunctions:

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My headphones broke this week, but I was able to exchange them for new ones.

She ate dinner with her family and she took a walk with friends. (Because both sides of the conjunction are equal, the comma can be left off stylistically.)

And after reading through the tutorial, I decided to try it for myself.

So, I think I might try medical transcription after all. (You will need to use your judgement in situations such as these based on the tone of the speaker and the preceding sentence. If the speaker says, for example, "There is a lot of opportunity still in medical transcription. So I think I might try it after all," it's probably best to join the two sentences with a comma and not use a comma after so. However, if she's using it as an introductory word to broach the subject, you would use the comma.)

She had worked all day, so she really didn't feel like accepting additional work.

While it's important to guard against overusing commas, it's also important to guard against underusing them, which results in run-on sentences.

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to comma usage, so I hope you'll stick around as we look at some of the other common uses in future posts!