Write It Well

Your writing can look incoherent if you use too many different punctuation marks in a short space. In this example, it looks as if the author threw in parentheses and dashes at random:

[Lonnie magazine] has attracted big-name advertisers (Kravet, Room & Board and Bloomingdale’s all ran ads in the latest issue), as well as competitors. Since Lonny started, in October 2009 — at a time when many traditional shelter magazines, including House & Garden, Metropolitan Home and Blueprint, had gone out of business — three more online shelter magazines have popped up.

— Steven Kurutz, “The Thriving (Online) Shelter Industry,”

June 1, 2011, nytimes.com

We think simple commas and periods would make these sentences much easier for a busy reader to follow:

[Lonnie magazine] has attracted big-name advertisers such as Kravet, Room & Board and Bloomingdale’s, which all ran ads in the latest issue. The venture has also attracted competitors. Many traditional shelter magazines such as House & Garden, Metropolitan Home and Blueprint had gone out of business when Lonny started in October 2009. Three more online shelter magazines have popped up since then.

At Write It Well, we love to see authors correctly use a range of punctuation marks. But we like clear writing even more. Short sentences and simple punctuation are usually the most effective ways to communicate for a busy audience.

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Write It Well’s newly updated book Essential Grammar includes two clear chapters on punctuation. The book is a thorough review of the fundamental grammar you need to project a credible, professional image through your writing. It also includes nuances of punctuation and grammar that help your writing look especially polished.

Do you have an important document but not enough time to polish it? Just use Write It Well’s editing services. We’ll make sure the prose is correct, clear, concise, and engaging so your document will create an excellent impression.

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A piece of chocolate-covered bacon may … have been the greatest thing I’ve ever tasted.

Still, as both a fan of all things meat and a restaurateur, I have to speak truth to power: The bacon craze has gone too far…. Bacon coffee, bacon cereal, bacon ice cream — America, cut it out!

— Tim Love, “Stop the Bacon Insanity!”

Daily Beast, February 23, 2010

There’s the punctuation of Standard Written English, and then there’s nonstandard punctuation that signals an informal, conversational tone. The informal commas in the last sentence bend the standard rules.

Lighthearted journalism is one context. But in business writing, nonstandard punctuation can lower your credibility.

Adding the word and to the quotation’s last sentence would keep it informal, but make it impeccably standard: “Bacon coffee, bacon cereal, and bacon ice cream — America, cut it out!”

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For more guidelines on how to use punctuation correctly and confidently, and on when to write with a formal or informal tone, see our updated book Professional Writing Skills: A Write It Well Guide, which will ship on March 5th!

Out of more than 30,000 runs in the three sliding sports — bobsled, luge and skeleton — Whistler has seen 340 crashes.

— David Epstein, “Luge dangers exaggerated,”

CNN Opinion, February 16, 2010

“Skeleton” in the sentence above refers to a winter sport (AKA tobogganing). The writer uses only one comma because it’s standard journalistic practice to leave out a comma before “and” in a list of three or more items in a series.

For most writers, though, we’d strongly recommend adding a comma after “luge” in this sentence. Always including the series comma means your reader will always understand how many separate things you’re listing in a sentence.

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For more guidelines on how to use commas correctly and confidently, see our updated book Professional Writing Skills: A Write It Well Guide, which will ship on March 5th!

“For decades, the drug-resistant germ called MRSA was almost exclusively a concern of humans…. But in recent years, the germ has become a growing problem for veterinarians, with an increasing number of infections turning up in birds, cats, dogs, horses, pigs, rabbits and rodents….”

“For protection, Dr. Oehler recommends hand washing or using hand gels before and after playing with a pet, not letting a pet lick people around the face, and not washing pet food or water bowls in the same sink that food is prepared in.”

– Brenda Goodman, “Tie to Pets Has Germ Jumping to and Fro,”
New York Times online, September 21, 2009

Do you see how Goodman uses commas in two different ways here? She leaves out a final comma in “pigs, rabbits and rodents.” Yet she does add a final comma before “and” in the last sentence.

Why? Because the Associated Press tells journalists to use commas in different ways for different kinds of lists. The last sentence isn’t a list of simple items like birds and rodents. The final list item includes a conjunction of its own: “not washing pet food or water bowls in the same sink that food is prepared in.” The list of three complex items would be confusing without a final comma before the list’s main conjunction: “and.”

We recommend that most writers always add a comma before the conjunction in all lists of three or more items. (Not “The flag is red, white and blue,” but “The flag is red, white, and blue.”) Then you’ll never have to ask yourself if you need another comma to make your meaning clear.

For more tips about commas, see Write It Well’s book Professional Writing Skills: A Self-Paced Training Program.