Written English Lesson Two: The Comma and the Full Stop

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Written English Lesson Two: The Comma and the Full Stop

Posted on August 6th, 2008 in Grammar by Anne Lyken Garner

A simple tutorial on the correct use of commas and full stops. This lesson caters both for people learning the English language, and for native English speakers seeking to “brush up” on their writing.

I love the comma and often tend to overuse it as you’ll see in this tutorial. However, too many commas can slow down your writing and make your clauses hiccup to a point of putting your reader off.

Commas should indicate a very short pause, and in most writing courses, you’ll be told to write shorter snappier sentences, rather than long flowery ones with several associated clauses. The best way to know when to use a comma is to read your writing out loud and insert them in places where you pause (and intend for your reader to pause) naturally.

Note: These tutorials are by no means definitive, all inclusive guides. They are meant to briefly instruct in the areas of language most often used for every-day writing.

1. Use a comma when you make a list.

The ingredients for a good curry are monkeys, eyeballs, a bit of dust, a two-by-four piece of cardboard, a block of ice and some toothpaste.

There is no comma after “ice” because “and” is usually replaced by the comma in lists. You have one or the other and don’t need both. Having said this, years ago I did some studies with an American tutor who insisted that I needed a comma before the “and.” Having had a British education and being UK trained to teach English, I found that strange as this was not something I was taught to do.

2. Use a comma before your quotation marks for direct speech.

Michael said, “Oooh, I really do so love those high heels. Do they come in purple?”

I’ve seen a full stop used after “said” in sentences with direct speech, but if you’re confused, just remember that “Michael said,” and his actual speech are put together to make one complete sentence. The words “Michael said” cannot by themselves make up a complete sentence, therefore, should not be followed by a full stop.

3. Use a comma to separate two or more adjectives which refer to a particular noun

Her curries tend to be chewy, thick, cold and tasteless.

The adjectives (describing words) referring to the curry are in fact lists. Like number one, they would require commas to separate them.

4. Use a comma when you put a phrase into a sentence to give more explanation.

In order to make a sentence clearer, we sometimes add an explanatory phrase. When we use this trick in our writing, we must enclose this phrase in commas. For example, look at the sentence below.

When he broke my purple stilettos I became very upset.

We could make this sentence clearer to the reader and explain that the reason why I was so upset over my broken shoes, was because they were brand new.

When he broke my purple stilettos, which were brand new, I became very upset.

To test yourself to make sure you’ve put the commas in the right places, try taking out the enclosed phrase. If the sentence still makes complete sense (without this phrase) then you’ve done the right thing. We will deal with dashes and brackets (which are used in the same way as commas in most cases) in another lesson.

As an aside, writing clear, concise sentences is admirable. Sometimes, however, this can become boring if it’s all you do. Add a bit of spice with a different approach. For example, use clauses and commas to add interest to your writing. Look at the sentences below.

(a) Her daughter is very mature for her age.

(b) Her daughter, a child born a week before her father’s death, is very mature for her age.

The former is a fine, complete statement. The second is a sentence offering your reader a possible answer for the girl’s maturity, while leaving them wanting to read more by creating for them additional questions about the man’s death.

5. Use a comma with these conjunctions

We can’t help but use conjunctions in our writing, as they are an integral part to expressing ourselves colourfully. I will not deal with conjunctions here as this is not a tutorial on parts of speech. However, I will mention four which we are all bound to use in everyday writing. They are: of course, however, therefore and nevertheless. (Note: most conjunctions – coordinating or subordinating – do not need commas).

These tutorials, of course, are not all inclusive

These tutorials will, however, give you a sound starting point to writing English correctly.

You will, therefore, need to do further in-depth studies to advance in your work.

You have, nevertheless, been given some good pointers on the use of commas.

The Full Stop

The full stop is probably the easiest punctuation mark to use, as it dictates the end of a thought/sentence and commands the longest pause.

1. Use a full stop to end a sentence

As everyone knows, a full stop ends a sentence. A capital letter is then used to start a new sentence.

2. Use a full stop after an abbreviation

When you use a full stop after an abbreviation, you do not need a capital letter to start the next word, unless, of course, it is a proper noun which naturally needs a capital letter.

Here are some sentences to correct

The answers are below for you to check how you’ve done. Note that one of these sentences needs no correction.

1. He was the man of her dreams dreams she had kept hidden from her closest friends.

2. Noah had three sons they were Shem Ham, and Japhet

3. She said to him. “You have nothing to worry about. I have done the packing made the reservations rented the car the cabin and the skis.”

4. My builder, who had arrived late, told me that his car had been stolen last night.

5. “You’ve got to be kidding” I said. “Men don’t wear high heel shoes”

Answers

1. He was the man of her dreams, dreams she had kept hidden from her closest friends. (1 mistake).

2. Noah had three sons, they were Shem, Ham and Japhet. (4 mistakes – don’t forget the full stop at the end. Instead of a comma after “sons” a full stop can also be used. “T” in “they would then have to be capitalised).

3. She said to him, “You have nothing to worry about. I have done the packing, made the reservations, rented the car, the cabin and the skis.” (4 mistakes).

4. My builder, who had arrived late, told me that his car had been stolen last night. (Correct)

5. “You”ve got to be kidding,” I said. “Men don’t wear high heel shoes.” (2 mistakes).

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27 Responses to “Written English Lesson Two: The Comma and the Full Stop”

Unofre Pili
August 6th, 2008 at 7:57 am

Thank you.Very helpful Anne.
Glynis Smy
August 6th, 2008 at 8:21 am

I am a comma freak! Another great article Anne
IcyCucky
August 6th, 2008 at 9:37 am

Great article, Anne..
valli
August 6th, 2008 at 11:01 am

Great and useful article.
Ruby Hawk
August 6th, 2008 at 4:15 pm

Thank you, A lesson I needed. I use way too many comas. I will have to come back and read this one several times.
booradley
August 6th, 2008 at 9:05 pm

Great article!

Oh and thanks for the curry recipe.

:0)
Judy Sheldon
August 6th, 2008 at 10:08 pm

Anne, I was taught to use commas every time I took a breath, when I studied journalism in the military, and then at the university got marked down for overuse of commas. I will need to read and reread your article. I love commas and find myself in conflict as to when to use them. Do we still use commas with when and if clauses? Another thing we were taught that I had to unlearn was to leave two spaces at the end on each sentence. Please make up my mind. lol Thank you for tackling one of these confusing issues.
nobert bermosa
August 6th, 2008 at 11:37 pm

thanks for the wonderful lesson,
Comment
August 7th, 2008 at 1:03 am

I personally find that the overuse of commas contributes to far too many words in a written piece.
Sometimes it is better to divide a very long sentence into two specific ideas.
I appreciate your need to address this issue.
dhika
August 7th, 2008 at 4:22 am

thanks Anne, It’s Help me like article Judy too, cause I still learn english.
Anne Lyken-Garner
August 7th, 2008 at 6:46 am

Thanks for your comments everyone. I hadn’t expected to get so many comments from Triond writers, as I thought that this article would be viewed from mainly outside Triond (Olympics in China and all that). A pleasant surprise though.

Judy, some time ago we did use commas with ‘and’ clauses, but more recently, we’re leaning towards using shorter sentences(especially in journalism and modern writing courses) and fewer commas.

If you do a typing course (which I also did) you’re taught to put 2 spaces after a full stop. In my job as a Radio Announcer, I was made to do a journalism course while training and they made me to this as well. As a result, I still do. However, since many people use a computer keyboard instead of a typewriter to type, it may not be such a big deal. I think it looks nicer, but this may be because I was taught to do that. See, I’ve done it here too. I don’t think that it is a rule we still have to follow.
CC
August 7th, 2008 at 9:36 am

Triond rewards cut and paste pictures and not content.
I have found other sites much more worthy of my content and expertise.
Like you, I am a very busy person and Triond is often not worth the pennies.
tonisan60
August 7th, 2008 at 11:58 pm

Excelent article, but I have a question, if you can, please answer me on the triond mail, because I have the bad habit of never turn back to one of my comments.
So, the question is; where is and what it is about English lesson numer one?, I ask you this because in this page you have written lessons number two and three, but what did happen with lesson one?
Thank you for your amazing lessons I hope there will be a lot more of them, my claps for your great article.
Hugs and kisses.
Alexa Gates
August 8th, 2008 at 9:35 pm

again, you’ve explained it better than any of my high school teachers so far This is great refresher for when school starts! and everyone needs a good english lesson every once in awhile!
Bill
August 9th, 2008 at 9:20 am

Nice article, and I appreciate your pointing out that the serial comma before “and” in constructions like “a, b, and c” is indeed preferred in the US. Another tip: “cater for” is correct in the UK, but would be considered bizarrely unidiomatic in the US, where the only preposition “cater” takes is “to” (”we catered to his every whim”). Why ask why?
penny golding
August 10th, 2008 at 3:13 pm

I took the test and stuck some coma’s in the wrong place, yet I did well. You are, a great teacher! So easy to understand.
aprilten
August 10th, 2008 at 7:48 pm

got a perfect score again. thanks for this great tutorial.
Jenny
November 6th, 2008 at 5:13 pm

This is why my students are unable to use correct grammar. “The best way to know when to use a comma is to read your writing out loud and insert them in places where you pause (and intend for your reader to pause) naturally” (Garner). I don’t mean to be rude, but do you actually teach English for a living?
Anne Lyken Garner
November 7th, 2008 at 2:08 am

Jenny, it may be best to get your students off the internet, and take some responsibility for teaching them. After all, if a teacher could write a sweeping statement like,”This is why my students are unable to use correct grammar,” to some unknown person on the internet, she is obviously not taking responsibility for teaching her poor students anything.

It is true that, for someone who is not confident about using commas, the best way forward is to read through your work and add them where you would pause naturally. Ask any writing school.

I don’t know if you understand the point of this tutorial. It was to help budding writers and speakers of other languages to write so that their work could be read with some measure of understanding. And no, I don’t teach English for a living. I make a living in more exciting ways.

Thanks for dropping by.
Duong
March 30th, 2009 at 10:35 pm

When I list a number of tourism services like below, I expect no full stop or comma but people in Viet Nam usually put full stop at the end, please advise:

What not included:
-Travel insurance.
-Drinks and beverage.
-Personal expenses.
-English speaking guide from Ha Noi.
-Tips for tour guide and driver.
-All other things that are not mentioned above.
Anne Lyken Garner
March 31st, 2009 at 5:09 am

Duong, Is this on a brochure?
If it’s in list form like this – Travel insurance, drinks and beverage, personal expenses . . . you will need a comma after every one.

However, if it’s on an internet page, many site owners list items like you’ve done above (in a different line) without any punctuation. This is the general practice because it looks more uniform and neater.

If it’s on a brochure, the same ‘rule’ appplies. Printers for brochures do not use punctuation marks for the same reasons as above. They’re not really used because they’re taken for granted. Years ago when you had to pay for every character you printed on brochures and handouts, many advertisers phased out using puncutation marks in places like those where they weren’t seen as needed. It’s just common practice now.
I hope this answers your question.
Duong EVIVA TOUR VIETNAM
April 1st, 2009 at 1:49 am

Many thanks, Anne for your clear answer. It is kind of brochure as we use this at the end of a tour to Viet Nam sheet. Link as follows:
http://evivatour.com.vn/index.php?xo=view_tour&id=25

I think there would be no full stop:
1. For your reason
2. For all the usage of a full stop, there is none mentioning about at the end of a phrase when it is presented in my link

and no comma may be due to your reason of the printing cost from the past leading to the common practice now.

I find this a really useful forum and will share this with many of my friends in Viet Nam. Thank you very much, Anne.
Anne Lyken Garner
April 1st, 2009 at 8:57 am

Thanks, Duong. Here is a link that will give you the rest of the tutorials in this series, and a few other similar articles that you may find interesting or useful.

http://writerssolutions.blogspot.com/2009/02/write-for-web-tutorials.html
BDS
April 9th, 2009 at 6:35 am

“I do something more exciting for a living.”
Kindly do not denounce my profession. Thank you.
Shari86
April 9th, 2009 at 7:02 am

Articles like these are sorely needed. When I read content on the Internet I’m appalled by much of the grammar and punctuation. While your advice on commas is very useful, you said yourself that you often overuse them. I think this can be a big problem for a lot of writers as using too many commas is just as disruptive to the meaning for the reader as not using them often enough.
v v
July 29th, 2009 at 1:53 am

thnx!but sir is dre a way thrgh wch u cld crct some of my writings.pls do rply.
biju george
September 3rd, 2009 at 7:36 am

Great article. Really appreciate this generosity of helping people to learn stuff.

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