Six Common Comma Errors

• Serial comma: Use, don’t use, or don’t worry?
A number of grammarians, teachers often think that punctuation, capitalization, spelling and grammar rules are absolute. The reality is that grammar hardly is black and white. It evolves over time, and depending on your current location in the world different rules generally are considered the norm of what constitutes proper English. One such rule for which different norms exist is that of the serial comma (aka the series comma, Oxford comma, or Harvard comma). 

• Place commas inside quotation marks
One punctuation matter that might keep you up at night is where to place a comma when appearing with quotation marks. Well, you can quote me on this: Commas appear inside quotation marks, according to the book “Use the Right Word,” and other sources.

• Use commas to set off nonessential information
Often we’re taught to use commas is we pause when speaking. While that can be helpful, generally commas aren’t about showing how a person should say a line of text. Instead, authors use commas to subtly signal a variety of information to readers, and how we convey that when speaking may not correlate at all to what is done when writing.

• Use comma before coordinating conjunction
All too often, writers think a conjunction is enough to connect two sentences together. Others think a conjunction always needs a comma. You risk confusing readers should such an error be made.

• Use comma to set off introductory element
Whenever your sentence begins with an introductory element, set it off with a comma. Think of the the comma as a handshake.

• Watch for comma splices in your writing
When writing, authors also can appear to have left our a word or two when they sloppily connect two sentences together to form one. This usually occurs during a comma splice.