Commas - (not comma's, and we'll talk about aggravating apostrophes later!)

Contrary to popular belief, commas were not invented to make life difficult for school kids! They are used to improve the flow of your ideas and add clarity to your thoughts. Without them, your writing will just wander off into incomprehensible waffle.

Commas are kind of difficult to explain in such a short tutorial, but basically, they have three main purposes:

1. To separate a list of items within a sentence. These can be nouns, adjectives, verbs or clauses:

I have dog beds, leads, muzzles and feed bowls.

I have red, green, purple and blue dog beds.

The boys ran, jumped, swam and climbed all day long.

My dog beds are excellent quality, have double-stitched edges, are made of finest yak felt and will keep your dog comfortable when he sleeps.

2. When using a conjunction to join clauses like this:

The dog was old, so we gave him the best yak felt bedding.

3. Reversing the order of a sentence by putting the conjunction first like this:

He doesn't require a muzzle because his dog has no teeth.

In this case, the conjunction is because and the reverse order is this:

Because his dog has no teeth, he doesn't require a muzzle.

Take care when using reverse order like this as you can end up with some really weird-sounding sentences. If in doubt, use the 'normal' order.

There are many other uses for commas, but this covers the most common. In actual fact, if you look up a grammar textbook, you will find that not all grammarians even agree with each other. So just learn to use them correctly in those three instances and you'll be a long way ahead of the competition!

TYPING TIP

Always add a space between a comma and the next word like this:

I have red, (space) green, (space) purple and...

NOT like this:

I have red,green,purple and...

Colons and Semicolons

This is a colon :

This is a semicolon ;

Apart from their use as the eyes in emoticons :-), they play an important part in proper punctuation.

Think of them as 'heavy-duty' commas. Their role is similar - that of joining related clauses in a sentence; however a colon is most often used to introduce a list of items like this:

(I just used one)

I have three types of dog beds: yak felt, linen and mouse fur.

The first part of the sentence tells you there are going to be three things, then the colon says 'here they are'.

The second use of a colon is to add an explanation or definition to a clause like this:

Yak felt dog beds: expensive and luxurious comfort for your pets.

A semicolon is used to join two related clauses that could also be an independent sentence like this:

Bob likes yak felt dog beds; Tom uses mouse fur.

Both of the clauses above are short, correct sentences (independent) and by joining them this way, we are suggesting that there is a relationship between the two clauses. (Two men who like to give their dogs absurdly expensive beds might be one!)

Another use of the semicolon is to join two related clauses using a transition word or phrase such as 'however', 'in addition to' or 'on the other hand' like this:

Bob likes yak felt dog beds; on the other hand, he considers the expense prohibitive. (Sensible guy!)

I hope this helps to explain commas, colons and semicolons a little.

Now let's move on to Aggravating Apostrophes Part 1

P.S. There is a deliberate mistake on page 9. Find it and PM me - don't write it in the comments section. Any other errors - please let me know in the comments.