Adding a comma can change the meaning of a sentence. Let's eat Albert. = We're going to eat Albert. Let's eat, Albert. = We're eating with Albert. In a long sentence, you can use commas to separate ...

When combining two complete sentences with a conjunction ("and," "but," "or," "for," or "yet"), precede the conjunction with a comma. Example: Still, the sun is slowly getting brighter and hotter, and ...

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 ...

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 ...

Let’s eat Grandma vs. Let’s eat, Grandma.” Classic middle school English teacher vibes. In all seriousness, though, these cornball axioms serve a purpose. Kenyon is a writer’s college by name, and we ...

Sex. Now that I have your attention, I’d like to discuss the fact that this sentence you’re reading is not necessarily a run-on sentence because run-on sentences are not simply sentences that run on ...

An Oxford, or serial, comma is the last comma in a list; it goes before the word "and." Technically, it's grammatically optional in American English. However, depending on the list you are writing out ...