a lot

"A lot" is always two words. Do not spell it as one word.

affect, effect

"Affect" is usually a verb meaning to influence. " Effect" is usually a noun meaning the result. (His new wealth did not affect his easy-going manner. The drop in the stock market had a serious effect on his holdings.) "Effect" can also be a verb meaning to bring about change. (The new department head effected sweeping changes in departmental policy.)

Apostrophes

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Apostrophes

Apostrophes are used to indicate the possessive forms of nouns and indefinite pronouns; contractions; and the plurals of letters, abbreviations, and numbers. Except for plurals of letters, abbreviations, and numbers, it is incorrect and confusing to use apostrophes with plurals that are not possessives.

Possessives

To form the possessive of nouns ending in a letter other than s, add 's.:

• children's toys
• brother's keeper
• cat's paw

To form the possessive of singular nouns ending in s, you may either add 's or add only the apostrophe, whichever sounds the least awkward:

• boss's office
• press's inquiries
• Jones's strange career
• Jesus' teachings
• Moses' leadership

Contractions

Apostrophes are used to show omitted letters in contractions:

• won't
• can't
• shouldn't
• I'll
• you're

Plurals of letters, abbreviations, and numbers

To avoid possible confusion, you need an apostrophe with the plural of lower case letters. Otherwise plurals of some letters (a,i, or u, for example) would look like words.

There are too many s's and too many i's in Mississippi.

The plurals of capital letters may be formed with or without apostrophes, but we need an apostrophe if there is a possibility of confusion.

CONFUSING: As on a report card are wonderful.

CLEAR: A's on a report card are wonderful. 

To form the plural of abbreviations or numbers, we can use an apostrophe or not. It is our choice as long as we are consistent within a particular piece of writing.

apostrophe quiz

Accept, Except

To accept something is take it in or receive it. Except means everything but. He would not accept any money for the service he had performed. He had moved everything except the kitchen sink.

faze, phase

To faze is to frighten: Nothing seemed to faze him.

A phase is a stage in a development: He's going through the fiercely independent phase of adolescence. 

it's or its

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Many people confuse these words because they associate apostrophes with possessives. In fact, possessive nouns require apostrophes, but possessive pronouns do not.

" It's" and " its" are pronouns. Nouns, remember, are the names of
people, places, and things. Pronouns are words that stand in for nouns.

" It's" is a contraction of " it is." It's always good to have lots of chocolate.

" Its" is a possessive pronoun. If management doesn't follow its own policies, what can we expect from the employees? 

Comma Quiz Answers

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1. Mercer, who was in charge of the supply room, made sure that no one got supplies without permission. (interrupter)

2. People who needed supplies had to follow Mercer's way of doing things.

3. They had to fill out a request form, and Mercer double-checked every line. (compound sentence)

4. They had to come to the supply room and give the request form to Mercer.

5. Mercer could account for every pencil, paper clip, and notebook in the supply room. (series)

6. When people came to the supply room without a request form, Mercer turned them away. (introductory expression)

7. He didn't want to be mean, but he wasn't going to let them take advantage of him. (compound sentence)

8. Mercer wouldn't give a number 2 pencil to the president of the company unless he had a request form.

9. Some people felt that Mercer was a little too rigid, but he felt he was just doing his job. (compound Sentence)

10. When Mercer took over the supply room job on April 29, 1999, he made a list of everything in the supply room. (introductory expression and date)

11. Mercer, as you know, is not well liked in the company. (interrupter)

12. From the beginning everyone thought that Mercer was a pain in the neck.

Comma Quiz

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Put commas in the appropriate places in the following sentences.

1. Mercer who was in charge of the supply room made sure that no one got tools without permission.

2. People who needed supplies had to follow Mercer's way of doing things.

3. They had to fill out a request form and Mercer double checked every line.

4. They had to come to the supply room and give the request form to Mercer.

5. Mercer could account for every pair of pencil paper clip and note book in the supply room.

6. When people came to the supply room without a request form Mercer turned them away.

7. He didn't want to be mean but he wasn't going to let them take advantage of him.

8. Mercer wouldn't give a number 2 pencil to the president of the company unless he had a request form.

9. Some people felt that Mercer was a little too rigid but he felt he was just doing his job.

10. When Mercer took over the supply room job on April 29 1999 he made a list of everything in the tool room.

11. Mercer as you know is not well liked in the company.

12. From the beginning everyone thought that Mercer was a pain in the neck.

Answers

Commas with Coordinating Conjunctions

      

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Commas with Coordinating Conjunctions

      Do not put a comma between groups of words joined by a conjunction like and or but, except in compound sentences.

            He did not know whether to try to explain all this to his girl friend or to join a monastery. (Two phrases joined by or. A comma would be incorrect.)

            He couldn’t join the Foreign Legion because he was too old and overweight. (And joins two words. A comma would be inappropriate.)

Commas between sentence elements

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Commas between sentence elements Commas should not go between sentence elements that naturally go together. 

Do not put commas between subject and verb or verb and object.

EXAMPLES

Most people do not get enough chocolate in their diet.

Men who trifle with ladies’ affections will find that fate will have its revenge.

Professor Mongoose lost all his hope for happiness in only a few days.

(None of these sentences contain commas.)

Unnecessary Commas

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Unnecessary Commas Unnecessary commas confuse the reader. Do not use a comma unless there is a rule for it. It’s better to leave out a required comma than to put one in where it doesn’t belong.

Pause for breath and pause for change in the flow of thought

Most people put a comma in places within a sentence where a speaker would naturally pause. That would be right 90% of the time. The problem is, it would be wrong 10% of the time. A comma signals a change in the flow of thought within a sentence. However, sometimes we pause for breath. It is correct to put a comma in a sentence only where the flow of thought would change. It is not correct to put a comma in a sentence where the pause is only for a breath of air. See the sentence below.

Men who try to lead a double life always come to grief in the end.

Did you want to put a comma after “life”? There is a pause there, but there is no change in the flow of thought. If we try to take “who try to lead a double life” out of the sentence, we would change the meaning of the sentence drastically. It would be wrong to put a comma after “life.”

Series and Conventions

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Series and Conventions Series

            Words or groups of words in a series are separated by commas.

            He was surrounded by sycophants, liars, and thieves.

            Smedley had money hidden in the mattress, under the rug, and in the urn containing his mother’s ashes.


Conventions

            Commas are used to separate groups of numbers into units of threes, in dates and addresses, in titles and degrees, and with phrases identifying direct quotations. Notice that if dates or addresses appear within a sentence, a comma is required after the year and after the date.

            Aristotle Mongoose, Ph. D., of St. George, New Hampshire, said, “From October 1, 1997, to September 30 of the next year, Americans consumed 7,340,000 pounds of chocolate.”

Commas for Clarity

   
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        Sometimes we need a comma to let the reader know there is a pause in a particular place in a sentence. Without a pause the sentence would be misread. Look at the following sentences, for example:

            After eating the horses went out to pasture. (After eating the horses?)

            After eating, the horses went out to pasture.

            Soon after Miss Sweetcakes discovered that Reggie had been two-timing her. (Without a comma the reader expects something to be added to this sentence.)

            Soon after, Miss Sweetcakes discovered that Reggie had been two-timing her.

Compound Sentences

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Compound Sentences

Sometimes when we are writing or speaking, we may want to express two closely related ideas.  We might show the close relationship by "gluing" the two statements together into one longer sentence.  Here's an example:

I don't want to hear about your operation now, and I will not want to hear about it in the future.

There are two statements about the writer's lack of interest in the operation.  Each one could have been a separate sentence, but they are put together in one longer sentence since they are closely related.  Two related shorter sentences joined to form one longer sentence are called a compound sentence.

Here are some more examples of compound sentences:

Badapple was a politician, and he would do anything to get elected.

He made all kinds of promises, but he never kept them.

He would promise to lower your taxes, or he would promise to build a public works project in your town.

After the election the building project would be forgotten, and the taxes would be raised rather than lowered.

The Glue

We said above that a compound sentence was made by "gluing" two shorter sentences together.  If you look at the four sentences about Badapple the politician, you will easily recognize the "glue."  Each of these compound sentences contains two shorter sentences and a comma in front of a word like and, but, or or.  These words are conjunctions.  Conjunctions are words that join two sentence parts together.    Conjunctions can join words or phrases or clauses.  Conjunctions that join constructions of equal weight in a sentence are called coordination conjunctions.  There are only a few coordinating conjunctions:  and, but, so, or, nor, yet, for.

Since the flow of thought changes at the end of the first clause, we intuitively pause in speaking and mark that pause with a comma.

Interrupters

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Interrupters

When we speak, if anything interrupts the flow of thought within a sentence, we intuitively pause before and after the interrupter. In writing we signal that interrupter with commas.

EXAMPLES

My cousin figured it out.
My cousin, who is not a rocket scientist, figured it out.
My cousin, by the way, figured it out.
My cousin, nevertheless, figured it out.

Do not use commas to separate an expression that does not interrupt the flow of thought.

The man who first discovered gold in California died in poverty.

(“Who first discovered gold in California” is not an interrupter. If we take it out, the sentence is not clear.)

Sam Jackson, who first discovered gold in California, died in poverty.

Introductory Expressions

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Introductory Expressions

Anything that goes before the subject is introductory. In speaking we intuitively pause at the end of the introductory expression to let our listener know that there is a change in the flow of thought in the sentence. In writing, a comma marks that pause.

Introductory expressions are followed by a comma if
- they are five or more words long, or
- they have a verb form

EXAMPLES

Everything was fine

Before those people moved next door, everything was fine.
(The introductory expression is six words long, and it has a verb.)

In the first year of the marriage, everything was fine.
(The introductory expression has seven words.)


In the beginning everything was fine.
(The introductory expression has only three words and no verb, so it doesn't need a comma.)

Comma Rules

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What do commas really mean? We think of language as a series of sounds, but an important part of language is the pause between sounds. We pause briefly between words so that our words don’t run together. We make a longer pause at the end of a sentence to signal to our listeners that we are at the end of a thought.

We also pause within sentences to signal a change of the flow of thought within that sentence. Here are three structures that change the flow of thought within a sentence.

• Introductory expressions
• Interrupters
• Compound sentences

More about these structures coming.

They're Their There

They're -- a contraction of "they are"
They're always late.

Their -- a possessive pronoun
They never pay their fair share of the cost.

There -- an expletive (a word that stands in place for the subject)

There was too much hanky-panky going on.
There is a perfect example of incompetence.