Write It Well

Here are two simple rules to keep track of commas in complex sentences:

1. Don’t use commas when removing words would change the meaning
2. Do use commas to set off word groups that only add extra details

Here’s a sentence with two correct commas and one incorrect comma:

Whole Foods began a weekly Twitter chat, for an hour every Thursday, to discuss topics such as holiday menu planning, with its followers.

The first two commas are correct because they surround a word group that does not change the sentence meaning. (Taking out those words would leave the intact idea, “Whole Foods began a weekly Twitter chat to discuss topics such as holiday menu planning.”)

The third comma is incorrect because the words “with its followers” are essential to tell the reader who was part of this Whole Foods Twitter discussion.

Since removing the words would leave the company discussing holiday menus with no one, here’s how the sentence should read:

Whole Foods began a weekly Twitter chat, for an hour every Thursday, to discuss topics such as holiday menu planning with its followers.

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Write It Well’s book Essential Grammar includes a full chapter on commas. We’ve made all the book’s exercises available as a free download here to accompany the e-book, which is now available on Amazon.com!

Do you have an important document but not enough time to clarify your thoughts and double-check your punctuation and grammar? Just use Write It Well’s editing services to make sure your readers follow your ideas and respect your voice.

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The longer a sentence gets, the more difficult it is to group its ideas clearly. But even average-length sentences can be unnecessarily tangled, as in this example:

As investors clamored for shares, Groupon, at the end of the day, priced its initial public offering at $20, above the expected range of $16 to $18.

That sentence is 27 words long — a good length in business prose. But the sentence is hard to follow because several ideas are mixed together:

• Investors clamored for shares at the end of the day
• Groupon priced its initial public offering at $20
• That price was above the expected range of $16 to $18

Separating those three ideas makes it easier to weld them back together with new, user-friendly transitions:

As investors clamored for shares at the end of the day, Groupon priced its initial public offering at $20 — above the expected range of $16 to $18.

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Write It Well’s book Essential Grammar includes one chapter on sentence structure and two more on punctuation. We’ve made all the book’s exercises available as a free download here to accompany the e-book, which is now available on Amazon.com!

Do you have an important document but not enough time to clarify your thoughts and double-check your punctuation and grammar? Just use Write It Well’s editing services to make sure your readers follow your ideas and respect your voice.

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This correctly punctuated sequence of sentences about the iPhone 4S is a perfect illustration of how you can avoid a comma splice:

Apple introduced its long-awaited new iPhone on Tuesday. But it wasn’t an iPhone 5. That will have to wait.

Those last two sentences would be incorrect if they were connected only with a comma:

Apple introduced its long-awaited new iPhone on Tuesday. But it wasn’t an iPhone 5, that will have to wait.

That sentence is a comma splice: two clauses, each of which could stand as an independent sentence, incorrectly joined with a comma.

When you have two clauses that could stand as independent sentences, you’ll always be safe if you use any of these other methods to join them:

A Semicolon:

Apple introduced its long-awaited new iPhone on Tuesday. But it wasn’t an iPhone 5; that will have to wait.

A Comma and a Conjunction:

Apple introduced its long-awaited new iPhone on Tuesday. But it wasn’t an iPhone 5, since that will have to wait.

A Semicolon, Linking Word, and Comma:

Apple introduced its long-awaited new iPhone on Tuesday. It wasn’t an iPhone 5; unfortunately, that will have to wait.

Or, of course, you could just make each independent clause its own sentence, as in the original example.

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Do you have an important document but not enough time to clarify your thoughts and double-check your punctuation and grammar? Just use Write It Well’s editing services to make sure your readers follow your ideas and respect your voice.

Write It Well’s book Essential Grammar includes two chapters on punctuation to help you boost the impact of all your business documents.

We’ve made all the book’s exercises available as a free download here to accompany the e-book, which is now available on Amazon.com!

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Casual business writing can be tricky: how can you make your Web copy sound welcoming, yet professionally credible? If you’re concerned that your prose may sound sloppy rather than casual, grammar rules can offer you some safe and reliable guidelines.

Here are some nonstandard sentences in a pleasant T magazine article about Blue Bottle Coffee. The magazine’s handwritten text emphasizes the quotes’ intentional informality:

Since the first line is a question, standard English would require a comma after the name. Of course, the first words of the sentences would also be capitalized.

A businessperson might frown at the grammar of that last sentence if it were part of a formal commercial mission statement. Here’s a revised, correct sentence about coffee: “It makes us smarter, funnier, and healthier, and it is delicious.”

A little knowledge of parallel verb structure is all you’d need to dress up the informal look of this prose and feel sure that it’s appropriate for a formal business document.

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Do you have an important document but not enough time to double-check your punctuation or untangle your sentences? Just use Write It Well’s editing services to make sure your readers follow your ideas and respect your voice.

Write It Well’s book Essential Grammar includes a section on parallel verb structure and two full chapters on punctuation.

We’ve made all the book’s exercises available as a free download here to accompany the e-book, which is now available on Amazon.com!

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Be cautious about using journalism as a model for your business writing: some excellent journalists use nonstandard English. Here’s a sentence that uses a colon in a nonstandard way.

To take an example of just one classroom convention that might be inhibiting today’s students: teachers and professors regularly ask students to write papers.

— Virginia Heffernan, “Education Needs a Digital-Age Upgrade,” nytimes.com, August 7, 2011

There’s a simple rule about a colon that follows an introductory thought: only type a colon after an introductory word group that could stand on its own as a complete sentence.

A colon is correct in both the following sentences because the reworded introductory thoughts could both become complete sentences if they were followed by periods instead of colons. The revised words are underlined.

I’ll take an example of just one classroom convention that might be inhibiting today’s students: teachers and professors regularly ask students to write papers.

Here is an example of just one classroom convention that might be inhibiting today’s students: teachers and professors regularly ask students to write papers.

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Write It Well’s book Essential Grammar includes two full chapters on correct punctuation. We’ve made all the book’s exercises available as a free download here to accompany the e-book, which is now available on Amazon.com!

Do you have an important document but not enough time to untangle your sentences or double-check your punctuation? Just use Write It Well’s editing services to make sure your readers follow your ideas and respect your voice.

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Many businesspeople have to manage distractions as we write for work. Here’s a tip to keep your punctuation correct after an interruption takes you away from your keyboard.

Sometimes, a supplemental thought appears in the middle of a sentence. A second comma must follow the thought if an initial comma sets it off from the rest of the sentence. Here are two examples:

Economic competition, of course, is the only real reason … and, in my opinion, it is not a good enough reason to validate the resulting doubling of effort.

— Christopher Butler, “The case against apps,” Salon.com, July 27, 2011

It’s incorrect to omit that second comma after a supplemental thought. E.g., it would be wrong to type, “Economic competition, of course is the only reason.”

It’s especially easy to forget that second comma if you become distracted while you’re typing this kind of sentence. When you start typing after a distraction, rereading what you’ve typed and applying this rule can keep your sentences crisp and correct.

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Write It Well’s e-learning module Just Commas includes self-paced quizzes to help you master punctuation rules, and our book Essential Grammar includes a full chapter on commas. We’ve made all the book’s exercises available as a free download here to accompany the e-book, which is now available on Amazon.com!

Do you have an important document but not enough time to double-check your punctuation or untangle your sentences? Just use Write It Well’s editing services. We’ll make sure your prose is correct, clear, concise, and engaging so your readers will respect your voice and follow all your ideas easily.

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Some brilliant writers are terrible role models to imitate when you write your business documents. This beautiful passage about e-mail manners includes a bush-league grammar mistake:

In some instances, we are told that our e-mail went into spam, a statement that activates either our inner skeptic or our sympathy. (“It’s the permissible white lie,” Ms. McKean said. “It’s the equivalent of ‘I can’t go to your party, I came down with food poisoning.’”)

— Henry Alford, “When Your E-Mail Goes Unanswered,” nytimes.com, July 15, 2011

That orange comma creates a comma splice — a run-on sentence that could be corrected with a period or colon.

This writer can get away with a nonchalant comma splice because the rest of his prose is carefully crafted and error free. His grammar error is a conscious choice to strike an informal tone. But a comma splice in a high-stakes business document could make an educated stranger think you’re simply uninformed or careless.

Thorough grammar knowledge helps your writing project reliability. Building up your grammar knowledge is an ideal way avoid mistakes, maintain your professional credibility, and earn some confident elegance of your own.

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Write It Well’s e-learning module Just Commas includes self-paced quizzes to help you test your knowledge of punctuation, and our book Essential Grammar includes a full chapter on commas.

We’ve made all the book’s exercises available as a free download here to accompany the e-book, which is now available on Amazon.com!

Do you have an important document but not enough time to double-check your punctuation? Just use Write It Well’s editing services.

We’ll make sure your prose is correct, clear, concise, and engaging so your readers will follow all your ideas easily and respect your voice.

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