The List Comma

In a list, the comma may be replaced by the words: and or or.

The difference between American and British: the example above gives the British version (note that: Oscuridad and Pelotard doesn’t contain a comma). The American version does and would appear thus: Oscuridad, and Pelotard.

That said, the last comma may be required; for when things need to be made clearer. In this case, when you have a Moderator whose name is Chip and Dale:

The Modifier’s List

Becomes:

 And

Becomes:

The use here is in the replacement of and; however, there are times when this comma shouldn’t be used. Be aware that some descriptions do not necessitate that and:

Wouldn’t work as:

Remember that the comma’s use is to replace and or or and we would essentially be saying:

Insinuating that there are both the Italian and white marbles!

The Oxford Comma

In listing, the Oxford Comma has come into play. Simply put, with the Oxford Comma you put one last comma before the last item in the list or the joining sentence so that the comma prefixes the and, but or or:

The Joining Comma

When joining sentences, such as:

Use of a comma requires also a connecting word: and, or, but, while or yet. Such as:

Note that the connecting word must be used since:

Is wrong.

If you choose not to use the comma, then you must instead use a semicolon. You simply cannot use a comma to join two separate sentences together   more than two yes, but then it becomes a list!

Note also that there are connecting words that can never be preceded by a comma: however, therefore, hence, consequently, nevertheless and thus. These connecting words require a semicolon also:

The Bridging Comma

Commas may be used in a similar fashion to apostrophes. No, not for dialogue! A comma can be used when it signifies that some words (see the link? Apostrophe = letters, comma = words) are left out and, or when those words would be repeating what has already been used in the sentence.

In the above example, wanted to stove R1X's head in is missed out the second time round and replaced with the comma.

Note that when bridging a gap a comma isn't always necessary. Its purpose is for clarity and there may be times when the sentence is clear enough already.

The Bracketing Comma

Two commas may be used to interject a little more into a sentence, when that interjection may be left out!

Here the sentence works perfectly well without a Thaumertergic Chronicler by trade, and is thus called a weak interruption.

Note that both commas are required to make it work. But, don't over use this notion:

Does not require both commas, since if the middle section in the dungeon was removed, the sentence wouldn't make sense:

Therefore, in the dungeon isn't a weak interruption after all. It should read:

Confusing the issue a little more, make sure you get those bracketing commas in the right place (you don't want the first to look like it is part of a list):

Note that the weak interruption here is and spying it, but without it, the sentence would read:

That doesn't work and the culprit is the positioning of the first comma. If we move it after the and, and remove the weak interruption it still makes sense:

Defining and Non-defining Relative Clauses

Oh, this is getting complicated now - trust me, the comma is the worst. In a nut shell, defining relative clauses are required to clarify what or who is being discussed, and doesn't require the bracketing commas (ever). Non-defining relative clauses don't clarify, are therefore weak, and do need the bracketing commas.

Defining:

Non-defining:

The difference? The defining statement talks about only those Litopians who are a member of Readers Reports. The non-defining statement explains that all Litopians are members of Readers Reports - which isn't, incidentally, true (See? I didn't need the incidentally there. It was, incidentally, a non-defining statement).

But, a non-defining relative clause can come at the end of a sentence, and therefore not require both commas. Consider:

Weak Interruptions In Dialogue

Note that we could have the dialogue without the: sang Weird Al bit. The sentence stands up without us knowing who sang it. It stands to reason that you can move it around:

Or the middle:

Thanks to Litopian R1X for these shared insights - join Litopia now for immediate access to the Colony, the net's oldest and preeminent community for writers.