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 ...

Most people struggle to use commas effectively. That's according to writing coach and CUNY Journalism Press editor Timothy Harper. Harper said he's put at least one student on a "comma diet" by ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. When you're writing or typing and begin to list items in consecutive order, do you add a comma prior to the conjunction before the ...

Here’s an interesting question posed to me recently: Which of the following sentences is punctuated correctly? Look for fresh basil at your local grocery store, and, if it isn’t available, tell the ...

For at least two centuries, it has been standard practice in the United States to place commas and periods inside of quotation marks. This rule still holds for professionally edited prose: what you’ll ...

Comma mistakes happen all the time, but serious comma mistakes — errors that change your meaning or mislead your reader — are rare. It seems like every day I see a comma placed after a quotation mark, ...

Punctuation is a set of specific marks or symbols that we used to express the meaning of our sentences clearly and to make the flow of the text smooth. It shows us where we need to pause, it separates ...

Only Slate Plus members can gift Slate stories. Become a member to share 10 free articles a month. There’s no denying that commas are helpful little flecks of punctuation. They allow us to separate ...

When you're writing or typing and begin to list items in consecutive order, do you add a comma prior to the conjunction before the final item? Or not? The inclusion of that final comma is a great ...