P2-g Omit or correct any other unnecessary or incorrect commas.
Check your essays carefully to correct typical comma problems.
coordinating conjunction A word that joins comparable and equally important sentence elements: for, and, or, but, nor, yet, or so.
Omit commas that follow coordinating conjunctions.
Omit commas that follow coordinating conjunctions joining two independent clauses.
Omit commas following subordinating conjunctions such as who, that, although, or since.
subordinating conjunction A word or phrase (such as although or because) that introduces a dependent clause and relates it to an independent clause.
Watch for words such as who, which, that, whom, whose, where, when, although, because, since, though, and other subordinating conjunctions.
Omit commas preceding that when it introduces an indirect quotation.
indirect quotation A restatement of a speaker’s or writer’s ideas without quoting directly or using quotation marks.
Unlike a direct quotation, an indirect quotation is not set off by a comma or quotation marks.
Omit commas immediately following a preposition.
preposition A word (such as between, in, or of) that indicates the relation between a word in a sentence and its object. The water splashed into the canoe.
Omit commas setting off a prepositional phrase in the middle or at the end of a sentence.
When a prepositional phrase appears in the middle or at the end of a sentence, it is usually not set off by commas.
prepositional phrase A group of words that begins with a preposition and indicates the relation between a word in a sentence and the object following the preposition: Her sunglasses slid under the seat.
Rewrite a sentence that is full of phrases and commas to simplify both the sentence structure and the punctuation.
