Friday, October 2, 2015

Unnecessary Commas



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.”

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