Overcoming Comma Confusion
I’ll never forget the frustration of seeing “Run-on” scrawled across nearly every paragraph of my graded essays in school. Even with an English degree, commas baffled me for years. When my mom was homeschooling me, her advice was to just put a comma where you pause, but this technique only made me second-guess myself and overthink.
It wasn’t until I started teaching that commas finally began to click. After almost four years tutoring with Family Focused Tutors, I’ve developed two terms to help my students get their heads around commas: Comma Clues and Sentence Analysis.
Comma Clues: Spotting the Easy Rules
Comma Clues are straightforward rules you can identify at a glance. When teaching, I use detective imagery to build the idea that students are on the lookout for certain clues that signal we need a comma. Comma Clues are easy to spot just by looking at a sentence, like between items in a list, after an opening word, or setting off a name when someone is directly addressed. Repetition and practice will help these rules become second nature. Videos, articles, and worksheets are available for free online to commit Comma Clues to memory.
Sentence Analysis: Breaking It Down
For this type of comma, a student needs to understand and recognize some vocabulary. Some concepts take longer than others to master, so there is no timeline for learning this list. I usually review definitions with students verbally, but flashcards would also be a great technique. Then, plenty of practice will make it easy to analyze sentences. I recommend using free online worksheets or employing AI to generate example sentences for practice and review. Now, here is the order I recommend building concepts into correct comma usage.
Sentences and fragments - A sentence must have a subject, a verb, and a complete thought. If a group of words does not have those three essential pieces, it is a fragment.
Nouns and verbs - A noun is a person, place, or thing, and a verb is something you do or something you are.
Subjects and predicates - Sentences can be broken into the “who/what” (subject) and “what they do/are” (predicate). This concept can be tricky because a predicate will always be a verb, so we can use those two words interchangeably. On the other hand, while a subject will always be a noun, it may not be the only noun in the sentence, so the subject is a special noun. Another important concept to tuck in here is compound subjects and verbs–two subjects can do the same verb, or one subject can do two verbs. Identifying subjects and verbs is the most important step, as fluency in finding the subject and verb will be central to sentence analysis.
Clauses and phrases - While both words are names for groups of words, a clause has a subject and verb while a phrase does not.
Subordinating conjunction - Subordinating conjunctions tell the reader that he is waiting for more information. They make us ask the question “of what?” When, if, since, although, as soon as, or because of what?
Independent and dependent clauses - As long as a group of words has a subject and a verb, it is a clause. A subordinating conjunction turns an independent clause into a dependent clause. An independent clause alone is a complete sentence because it has a subject, verb, and complete thought, while a dependent clause alone is a fragment. Clauses can be joined and separated to create properly punctuated sentences.
Coordinating Conjunctions -While there are numerous subordinating conjunctions in the English language, there are only seven coordinating conjunctions. These words are used to connect ideas in a sentence, and you can easily remember them with the acronym FANBOYS–for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.
If a student can memorize these concepts and master finding them in sentences, then he is ready to use them in his writing. This is the part of comma usage that I call Sentence Analysis. Once a student finds the subjects and verbs, he can identify phrases, independent clauses, and dependent clauses and apply the following rules:
After Introductory phrases - if a group of words at the beginning of a sentence has no subject and verb, it is an introductory phrase. Place a comma after it just like an introductory word.
Between independent and dependent clauses - If you find two separate subjects and verbs and one subordinating conjunction, you can separate them with a comma.
Between two Independent clauses - Use a comma and a coordinating conjunction if a sentence has two separate subjects and verbs If a student follows the steps above and applies these rules, they should always have correct sentences. Of course, these are not all the ways to use commas, but if you know Comma Clues and Sentence Analysis, you can feel confident in each comma you place.
If a student follows the steps above and applies these rules, they should always have correct sentences. Of course, these are not all the ways to use commas, but if you know Comma Clues and Sentence Analysis, you can feel confident in each comma you place.