A student in my “History of the English Language” course stopped me after class a few weeks ago and asked, “I was just wondering—how do you feel about the Oxford comma?” She could have asked about the ...

There’s no denying that commas are helpful little flecks of punctuation. They allow us to separate written clauses and do good work when especially numerous or complicated groups of things exist in a ...

HAPPY National Grammar Day, everyone. Today's offering is only marginally on grammar. We've asked "What is grammar anyway?" here at Johnson. The layperson would almost certainly answer "those ...

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 ...

Contrary to popular belief, commas don't just signify pauses in a sentence. In fact, precise rules govern when to use this punctuation mark. When followed, they lay the groundwork for clear written ...

Despite claims to the contrary Peter Carey did not get rid of all the commas in his 2001 Booker prize-winning novel True History of the Kelly Gang (there are 13 on the first page alone) and attempting ...

The handsome, articulate, intelligent man wore a bright green midriff peasant blouse. Not really. No intelligent person would do that. But I offer up this sentence not as an example of fashion sense ...