Most English teachers grade not only for the ideas contained in a student's essay, but also for how well a student's paper is edited. In other words, English instructors expect students' grammar, spelling, word usage, and punctuation to be as perfect as possible. So many students will sometimes "go overboard" when reviewing their papers and will add more commas than they really need.
Students might ask, "Can there be too much of a good thing?" In the case of commas, most instructors will resoundingly cry, "Yes!" Here are three instances of when commas are unnecessarily used.
Commas are Not Necessary in Simple Sentences with Compound Elements
The easiest way to explain this error is to first explain that a student should be familiar with what an independent clause is. An independent clause is, at its most basic, a complete sentence. Here are two examples of independent clauses:
- No one listened to my concerns.
- The water levels are high and dangerous.
Both of these independent clauses can stand alone. A dependent clause, however, is not a complete sentence and cannot stand alone (thus, it is dependent upon something else). The following sentences are simple sentences that contain independent clauses followed by dependent clauses:
- People listened to my concerns but ultimately ignored me.
- High water levels are dangerous and contribute to erosion.
In the first example, "People listened to my concerns" is the independent clause and "ultimately ignored me" is the dependent clause (it cannot stand alone as a complete sentence). In the second example, "High water levels are dangerous" is the independent clause, while "contribute to erosion" is the dependent. As written above, the examples are correct. However, many students will erroneously place commas between the independent and dependent clauses before the coordinating conjunction (for example, "and"). Why do students want to do that? Probably because if they are writing two independent clauses, commas are necessary, but an independent clause and a dependent clause separated with a coordinating conjunction does not require a comma (so writing "People listened to my concerns, but ultimately ignored me" is incorrect).
Do Not Use Commas after Coordinating Conjunctions
Some students know and understand the above "rule," that commas belong between two independent clauses, but many times students will place commas after the coordinating conjunction rather than before. The following example is an incorrect use of the comma:
- I enjoyed the movie last night but, Robert hated it.
The comma should come at the end of the first independent clause before the coordinating conjunction. The corrected version of the above sentence is this:
- I enjoyed the movie last night, but Robert hated it.
Serial Commas Gone Too Far
The serial comma (so called because it punctuates a series) can sometimes also be confusing to students. A serial commas separates words in a series, like so:
- We divided the playing pieces into reds, greens, blue, and yellows.
The comma before the conjunction (and) is sometimes regarded as optional, but the other commas are absolutely necessary because they separate all the various elements of the series. Some students go a little crazy with the commas, though, and will sometimes throw in an extra at the beginning or end. Both of the following examples are incorrect:
- The playing pieces are, red, green, blue, and yellow. (There should be no comma after the verb "are".)
- The playing pieces are red, green, blue, and, yellow. (There should be no comma after the conjunction "and".)
Misused Commas Can Hurt an Essay
Unnecessary commas can be a distraction for readers, and if an instructor bases a grade in part on punctuation errors, a misused comma can hurt a student just as much as forgetting a necessary one. The three errors above are common misuses of the comma that can usually be avoided with careful proofreading.
Cynthia Jones-Shoeman - Cynthia (“Cindy”) Jones-Shoeman earned her MA in English from Colorado State University in 2007; her thesis was "Toni ...
