Advanced Comma Rules

Practice 1: Punctuate the following sentences using the first three comma rules:

Corrected Sentences:

1. When the large earthquake shook Seattle, Phillip decided to move back to New York.
2. No, I'm not ready to make a serious commitment.
3. Jaime is majoring in Elementary Education, isn't that right?
4. In Robin's opinion, baseball is ten minutes of excitement packed into three hours.
5. In the college cafeteria, one can hear students speaking Spanish, Japanese, Italian, Arabic, Russian, Portuguese, Farsi, and many other languages.
6. Lars has been studying Chinese for more than ten years, but he's never had the opportunity to visit China.
7. When I entered, the house was in darkness.
8. Her brother insisted that she be on time, yet when she arrived, he wasn't there.
9. To be perfectly frank, students need to know the fundamentals of grammar before they can write acceptable college papers.

Practice 2: Punctuate the following sentences using the last four comma rules:

Corrected Sentences:

1. College students, of course, need the fundamentals of grammar.
2. Grammar, which can be rather tedious, does not make a person a good writer by itself.
3. What is necessary, experts agree, is for students to write more in all of their classes.
4. "One doesn't know anything clearly", S.I. Hayakawa said, "unless one can state it in writing".
5. Yes, William, you will have to do a lot of writing in law school.
6. Every profession, I think, requires some sort of writing at some time.