THE OXFORD COMMA is a form of punctuation – but it’s become a cause of much debate over its usage. We all use commas when writing lists of things. But the Oxford comma has a very special place – it ...

Contrary to popular belief, commas don't just signify pauses in a sentence. In fact, precise rules govern when to use this punctuation mark. When followed, they lay the groundwork for clear written ...

In the first part of the series on “Understanding the conventions of academic writing”, I discussed these two common error patterns: i) Missing comma after ...

Liz in Newport Beach, Calif., posed a good question about commas. Consider the following two sentences. "Days are usually great, but, when they aren't great, they still pass in 24 hours." "Every word ...

Despite claims to the contrary Peter Carey did not get rid of all the commas in his 2001 Booker prize-winning novel True History of the Kelly Gang (there are 13 on the first page alone) and attempting ...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, it seems, is a little obsessive about commas. According to press reports, he’s been sending out directives to staff that they should follow certain strict guidelines.

The handsome, articulate, intelligent man wore a bright green midriff peasant blouse. Not really. No intelligent person would do that. But I offer up this sentence not as an example of fashion sense ...

In order to make your writing clear, you need to use commas. As well as using them to separate out key information, or divide up different clauses, commas can also completely change the meaning of a ...

As a member of the anti-Oxford faction who holds The Associated Press Stylebook near and dear to his heart, I feel it is my ...

The Romans and the Ancient Greeks didn’t use punctuation at all. They didn’t even have gaps between words. This is called scriptio continua, writing as one continuous string of capital letters, so ...