Grammar refers to the rules regarding the current standard
of correctness in speech and writing. Advances in word processing software have
included grammar-checking features.
Using Commas:
Do these sentences need
commas?
-
My father went to the store for some dessert
and bought ice cream.
No. Two verb phrases describing the action of the same
subject does not need a comma if the conjunction separating them is "and."
- My father went to the store for some dessert,
bought ice cream, and came home in time to see his favorite TV show.
Yes. Three or more verb phrases describing the action
of the same subject need commas to separate them.
- The text Who Built America?
describes
Reconstruction as a noble failure.
No. If Who Built America? was taken out of the
sentence, when a reader reads "text," they would not know which text the
writer means, so commas are not used when the title is in the sentence. (This
is called a restrictive appositive.)
Practice using commas.
Insert commas where needed in the following sentences; then read the explanations
below.
- The restaurant dessert tray featured carrot cake coconut
cream pie and something called death-by-chocolate.
- Because I was three hours short of graduation requirements
I had to take a course during the summer.
- The weather according to last night's forecast will improve
by Saturday.
- Students hurried to the campus store to buy their fall
textbooks but several of the books were already out of stock.
- My sister asked "Are you going to be on the phone much
longer?"
-
The restaurant dessert tray featured carrot
cake, coconut cream pie, and something called death-by-chocolate.
The comma separates the items in a series.
-
Because I was three hours short of
graduation requirements, I had to take a course during the summer.
The comma separates an introductory phrase or dependent clause from the rest
of the sentence.
-
The weather, according to last night's
forecast, will improve by Saturday.
The phrase "according to last night's forecast" interrupts the main
clause, so it is set off by commas.
- Students hurried to the campus store to buy their fall
textbooks, but several of the books were already out of stock.
The comma separates an independent clause from a dependent clause.
- My sister asked, "Are you going to be on the phone much
longer?"
The comma separates a direct quotation from the rest of the sentence.
Misplaced/dangling modifiers
A modifier is a word or group of words
that describes another word and makes its meaning more specific. Often
modifying phrases add information about "where", "when", or "how" something is
done. A modifier works best when it is right next to the word it modifies. For
example, consider the modifiers in the following sentence (they are underlined
for you):
The awesome dude rode a wave
breaking on the shore.
The word "awesome" is an adjective (or, a
one-word modifier). It sits right next to the word "dude" it modifies.
The phrase "breaking on the shore" tells us where he rode the wave; thus,
"breaking on the shore" is a modifying phrase that must be placed next to
the "wave" it modifies.
Below are some examples
of poorly placed modifiers. See if you can identify the problems:
-
Roger looked at twenty-five sofas shopping
on Saturday.
Obviously twenty-five sofas were not shopping
on Saturday. Because "shopping on Saturday" is meant to modify Roger, it
should be right next to Roger, as follows:
Shopping on Saturday, Roger looked at
twenty-five sofas.
-
The woman tore open the package she had just
received with her fingernails.
Had the woman really received the package with
her fingernails? The writer meant that she tore open the package with her
fingernails.
With her fingernails, the woman tore
open the package she had just received.
-
The waiter brought the pancakes to the
table drenched in blueberry syrup.
What's drenched according to the sentence?
The waiter, the table, or the pancakes? Actually, the pancakes were
drenched:
The waiter brought the pancakes,
drenched in blueberry syrup, to the table.
-
Lying in a heap on the closet floor,
Jean found her son's dirty laundry.
It sounds as if Jean was lying on the
closet floor when she found her son's laundry!
Jean found her son's dirty laundry
lying in a heap on the closet floor.
This page modified thanks to Naoko
Shibusawa, University of Hawaii and Susan Walter, University of Minnesota
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