A majority of American style guides mandate its use, including The serial comma is also known as the Oxford comma, Harvard comma, or series comma.

If you are writing for a British audience, put the comma after the closing quotation mark.Parentheses are used to give additional information to the reader—information that would disrupt the flow of the sentence if written as a nonrestrictive clause. The commas are like parentheses here, so it doesn't make sense to have only one."

The sentence above will almost certainly cause readers to do a double-take. Writers often use question tags to encourage readers to agree with them.

The comma , is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages.

Many trade books do use it.

As a rule of thumb, if the phrase is longer than about four words, use the comma. The sweet, scintillating aroma of cinnamon buns filled the kitchen. But fear not!

is known as a If these adverbs appear in the middle of a sentence, they are followed and preceded by a comma. “We’re going down to the soup kitchen to help serve dinner,” her mother called.After opening the new cookie tin, Chester had a hard time replacing the lid. The comma is used to avoid confusing consecutive numbers: December 19 1941. Identifying it as the restaurant recommended by Chester doesn’t narrow it down any further.The clause “whom I love dearly” is nonrestrictive because you could remove it and it would still be clear that you’re talking about the same person—“my wife” is already specific.A restrictive clause adds necessary information about something you have mentioned in a sentence. The same rules apply for titles. (Without serial comma)I dedicate this award to my parents, Jane Austen and Albert Einstein.I dedicate this award to my parents, Jane Austen, and Albert Einstein.Posey’s Cafe, which Chester recommended, is a fantastic restaurant.My wife, whom I love dearly, is a brilliant physicist.The cafe, that Chester recommended, is a fantastic restaurant.The cafe that Chester recommended is a fantastic restaurant.Either the blue shirt, or the red sweater will look good with your jeans.Either the blue shirt or the red sweater will look good with your jeans.You can wear a pashmina not only for warmth, but also for fashion.You can wear a pashmina not only for warmth but also for fashion.The professor remarked, “How attentive you have been today!”

Some writers think of a comma as a soft pause—a punctuation mark that separates words, clauses, or ideas within a sentence.With few exceptions, a comma should not separate a subject from its verb.Writers are often tempted to insert a comma between a subject and verb this way because speakers sometimes pause at that point in a sentence. It is called the Oxford comma because of its long history of use by Oxford University Press.The serial comma does not eliminate all confusion.

Ah, the comma.

Comma with an Appositive. If you use double quotation marks, then you should use single quotation marks for a quote within a quote. And it’s no wonder. In British English, we use single marks more often than the double marks. However, in much of Europe, Southern Africa and Latin America, Commas are used when rewriting names to present the surname first, generally in instances of alphabetization by surname: Similarly in lists that are presented with an inversion: Commas may be used to indicate that a word, or a group of words, has been omitted,Commas are placed before, after, or around a noun or pronoun used independently in speaking to some person, place, or thing:

However, there are many other functions of the comma, such as 'setting of questions', 'emphasizing point of view', etc.In general, the comma shows that the words immediately before the comma are less closely or exclusively linked The serial comma is used much more often, usually routinely, in the United States. The comma is used in many contexts and languages, mainly to separate parts of a Moreover, the mark is used to separate words, phrases and clauses in a sentence to help it to be understood: to divide a sentence into easily assimilated bite-sized pieces.

Some typefaces render it as a small line, slightly curved or straight but inclined from the vertical. But you don’t need a comma when you’re simply listing two items.You get a compound predicate when the subject of a sentence is doing more than one thing. After opening the new cookie tin (and eating several of the cookies,) Chester had a hard time replacing the lid.The company managers accidentally scheduled the, weekly meeting for Saturday. Using commas to offset certain adverbs is optional, including Some writers precede quoted material that is the grammatical object of an active verb of speaking or writing with a comma, as in Other writers do not put a comma before quotations unless one would occur anyway.