Before I started teaching copy-editing courses, I assumed that one of the nice things about being a teacher would be sharing hard-earned expertise with wide-eyed students awed by my vast knowledge.

When linking three or more elements, some writers place a comma before the "and": bell, book, and candle. That's known as the Oxford comma (or serial comma). Other writers don't use that comma: bell, ...

Comma questions keep cropping up online, and will forever, because the simple punctuation mark serves two different functions, which are blurred in usage. Some are necessary grammatically, some ...

One of my students once told me that when she writes something she always puts a comma wherever she thinks someone should take a breath. She defended this by saying this is what they do in a musical ...

I am, unapologetically, an over-user of commas. Case in point: I could have written the previous sentence as, "I am an unapologetic over-user of commas," but opted not to. I wished to emphasize just ...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, it seems, is a little obsessive about commas. According to press reports, he’s been sending out directives to staff that they should follow certain strict guidelines.

THE OXFORD COMMA is a form of punctuation - but it's become a cause of much debate over its usage. We all use commas when writing lists of things. But the Oxford comma has a very special place - it ...

Understanding when and when not to use commas can be very confusing. However, using commas correctly can take your writing to a higher level. And give it clarity. Long sentences need a comma - a long ...

Today, we’re kicking off a video series devoted to language in all its facets: grammar, syntax, vocabulary, spelling, usage, and punctuation. As much as possible, we’ll use current issues of the ...