As was mentioned in earlier lessons, punctuation marks on paper (or computer screen) are primarily signals indicating how a passage would be spoken aloud - how the voice pitch would rise or fall, when one thought or idea ends and another begins, the amount of emotional content in a sentence.  This lesson will examine the comma, those dainty little curved lines that tell a reader  one should pause slightly or take a quick breath at that point.  A writer of English needs to imagine how his words would be spoken aloud by an actor or a radio announcer, and where the imaginary speaker would pause or hesitate within a sentence, the writer should place a comma.  If you follow this simple procedure, you will use commas correctly most of the time.  There are in addition many situations not so easily detected where a comma should be used.  That is where English Punctuation Rules come in, to tell one specifically where and why to use commas. 

'The Chicago Bears scored 35 points in the game; the New York Giants, 31.' 

In this case, the words 'scored __ points in the game' were omitted from the second half of the sentence, but anyone reading it would know what was meant.  The comma is used to stand for the missing words.

 Parenthetical phrases are similar to Introductory Words - extra comments thrown into a sentence.  Sometimes they can alter the meaning of a sentence a little, but the sentence can survive without them.  Examples:  I believe ....for example ..... however ..... furthermore ...... thus ... without doubt ....in any case ..... On the other hand .... in my opinion ..... I swear.  Be careful, however, of situations when words like these are an essential part of the sentence and thus do not require a comma.  "Do you have faith in my opinion about the new product?"  "He put his glove on the other hand."   "I believe in the United States of America."

What is a Participial Phrase?  It is an -ing or -ed form of a verb, with modifiers, that acts as an adjective in a sentence.      Note in each of these sentences that if we left out the Participial Phrase, the basic sentence would remain the same.  The participial phrases just give us a little more information, in these cases, about the subjects of the sentences.

When writing English, any time you use the exact words someone has spoken, those words must be surrounded by Quotation marks.  In addition, those quotations have to be separated from the rest of the sentence by commas.   Note the location of the commas and the quotation marks.  When these two forms of punctuation are side-by-side in a direct quotation, the comma ALWAYS comes before the quotation marks.

1. April 15 2000 was not a happy day for many people.

2. I drove through Dallas Texas many times.

3. The personnel manager told Dave he could earn $56000 per year if he worked hard.

4. Lions tigers and bears can be dangerous if you are not in Oz.

5. Jill wanted to follow the path up the hill but Jack insisted on taking a shortcut.

6. Harry was in fact the only person who could do the job.

7. Truly I cannot understand what went wrong.

8. The juggler feeling sweat roll into his eyes worried about catching the spinning plates.

9. "I'm glad I found you " Sarah told the tour guide  "because I have been wandering for hours."

10. J. F. Kennedy Jr. will never become president.

1. When we go, to the store, we usually, buy too many, items we don't need.

2. January 1, February 14, March 17, and July 4, are the best days, of the whole year.

3. The United States, has a national debt, of about $3,500,000,000,000.00, so I don't worry about my little credit card debt.

4. The Johnson's vacation trip,  took them through Jackson, Mississippi, Mobile, Alabama, Hammond, Louisiana, and Beaumont, Texas, before they finally returned home, to Atlanta, Georgia.

5. "Well, I declare," said the surprised farmer, "I have never, seen such an ugly, undersized, dog as that!"

Dear Bill

Honestly I don't understand why some people were getting so upset.  I mean it's not as if you robbed a bank or anything really serious like that.  I think most folks would understand with the pressure you are under all the time that you need to get your mind off those matters once in a while.   August 8 1999 was a bad day for you I remember because of the article that hit the newspapers in New York Raleigh North Carolina Chicago and Denver Colorado.  Even some of your strongest supporters knowing what they do about events have been very careful to keep their distance. 

On a brighter note there was an article written by J. R. Clooney Sr.  printed in a major magazine in which the young woman in question Lois Monoski denied all or at least most of the allegations being made.  That mysterious deposit of $12350 made to her bank account has caused some curiosity however.  Well that is all I have to say for now but I hope I have helped cheer you up.  Stick to your story.

Your secret friend

Jim