The Ultimate Comma Guide: A Reference and a Textbook
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2015
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2015
Pages: 172
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2015
Pages: 172
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The Ultimate Comma Guide is a book for editors, professional writers, and students of writing. As a book for editors and professional writers, it is meant to serve as a reference to eliminate guesswork related to comma usage. Traditional instruction about comma usage has revolved around six to nine rules that may be incomplete or leave room for too much interpretation. In The Ultimate Comma Guide, English professor and professional editor Gentry Sutton has analyzed traditional guidance about comma usage and offered instruction that is more thorough than is typical of handbooks and other references.
As a book for students of writing, The Ultimate Comma Guide is grounded in the idea that comma usage is intricately related to a host of sentence-level terms and concepts. To master comma usage, students must understand fundamental concepts such as the difference between a clause and a phrase, the difference between an independent clause and a dependent clause, the difference between a restrictive element and a non-restrictive element, and many more. Consequently, The Ultimate Comma Guide teaches a number of fundamental writing skills through the lens of the comma.
Introduction
Chapter 1: Foundational Vocabulary for Comma Instruction
1.A: Parts of Speech
Nouns
Verbs
Pronouns
Adjectives
Adverbs
Prepositions
Conjunctions
Interjections
1.B: Subjects and Predicates
1.C: Predicate Complements
Chapter 2: Independent and Dependent Clauses
2.A: Clauses vs. Phrases
2.B: Independent and Dependent Clauses
Chapter 3: Introductory Elements
3.A: Adverbs
3.B: Transitional Expressions
3.C: Participles
3.D: Interjections
3.E: Phrases
Prepositional Phrases
Participial Phrases
Infinitive Phrases
Absolute Phrases
Chapter 4: Mid-Sentence and End-of-Sentence Elements
4.A: Nonrestrictive Elements
4.B: Parenthetical Expressions
4.C: Conjunctive Adverbs and Other Transitional Expressions
4.D: Contrasting Elements
Chapter 5: Standard Serial Items and Coordinate Adjectives
5.A: Standard Serial Items
5.B: Coordinate Adjectives
Chapter 6: Quotations and Dialogue, Direct Address, and Tag Questions
6.A: Quotations and Dialogue
Quotations That Follow Explanatory Information and End a Sentence
Quotations That Begin a Sentence and Are Followed by Explanatory Information
Quotations That Occur in the Middle of Sentence
Quotations That Are Broken by Explanatory Information
6.B: Direct Address
6.C: Tag Questions
Chapter 7: Dates, Addresses and City/State Locations, Titles and Designations, Numbers, and Correspondence
7.A: Dates
7.B: Addresses and City/State Locations
Cities and States
Full Addresses
7.C: Titles and Designations
7.D: Numbers
Regular Numerals
Measurements, Parts, and Categories
7.E: Correspondence
Chapter 8: Difficult Cases and Rules Less Frequently Needed
8.A: Serial Items with Internal Commas
8.B: Placement of Commas When They Are Used with Parentheses
8.C: “The More,” “The Better,” “The Greater,” and Similar Phrases
8.D: Internal Monologue
Internal Monologue That Follows Explanatory Information and Ends a Sentence
Internal Monologue That Begins a Sentence and Is
Followed by Explanatory Information
Internal Monologue That Occurs in the Middle of a Sentence
Internal Monologue That Is Divided by Explanatory
Information
8.E: Questions Referred to within Sentences
8.F: “Not Only…But Also…” Sentence Constructions
8.G: Homonyms That Appear Beside Each Other
8.H: Commas to Indicate Omission
8.I: Sentences Containing Two Introductory Elements
Chapter 9: Common Comma Misuses
9.A: The Comma Splice
9.B: Compound Elements
9.C: Comma Misuse with Subordinating Conjunctions
9.D: Dates, Holidays, and Seasons
9.E: Family Titles
9.F: Elements Not Usually Separated by Commas
Subjects and Their Verbs
Action Verbs and Their Complements
Linking Verbs and Their Complements
Prepositions and Their Objects
Prepositional Phrases That Follow Other Major Sentence
Elements
9.G: First and Last Items in a Series
9.H: First and Last Coordinate Adjectives
Appendix: List of Comma Rules with Rule Examples
Index of Subjects
Gentry Sutton currently serves as Vice President of Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer at Warner University in Lake Wales, Florida. Previously he taught English and served as Provost, Dean of Arts and Sciences, and Assistant Professor of English at Oklahoma Wesleyan University. He also served as Assistant Professor of English and in various associate dean roles at Sterling College in Kansas.
Gentry earned his doctorate in Educational Ministry from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri, and he was named the seminary’s Outstanding Doctoral Student in 2015. He holds a master's degree in English from Emporia State University in Kansas and a bachelor's degree in English from Sterling College in Kansas.