Interrupters

INDEX


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.