13. Commas are Important

"I invited those I hated, my family and my friends."

Whoops! Forgetting the oxford comma communicates this supposed-to-be-list instead as "my family and friends" meaning "those I hated." Let's fix that up with.

"I invited those I hated, my family, and my friends."

Much better. Whoa! Commas are important, and I often forget. This blog post was a way for me to summarize my research back into grade school grammar, and then some. By no means is this blog post exhaustive, but having even a few rules under your belt can greatly improve your writing.

As designers, we often think grammar isn't important to our profession, but that is a mistake. Grammar functionally governs the rules of written communication. If there is one thing that is more important than our design skillset itself, it's communication. Whether we're dealing with clients, coworkers, or simply just getting our ideas across, clarity is always a good strategy. So, here are three few easy comma rules we can start implementing right away into our writing!

1. Separating Clauses

Commas function as clear breaks between clauses to increase legibility. Independent clauses can stand alone, whereas dependent clauses cannot stand by itself. For example, the independent clause, "I used my iPad to write this," can stand alone as a sentence, but the dependent clause, "As an avid apple fanatic," can't stand alone as a complete sentence. Commas work hard to separate clauses. If we have a dependent clause with an independent clause, make sure to use a comma in between them.

"As an avid apple fanatic, I used my iPad to write this blog." This is an example of a dependent clause preceding an independent clause, separated by a comma. In this case the dependent clause, "As an avid apple fanatic," works to further describe the subject, which is myself. The dependent clause however is not necessary to complete the sentence thought.

When combining two independent clauses, you must use a comma and then a conjunction (and, but, for, yet, etc).

"I'm an avid apple fanatic, yet I tolerated writing this blog on a windows computer." Notice how each clause can stand alone as a complete sentence. They are independent clauses. Each carry its own complete thought. They must be combined using a comma and a conjunction to convey their appropriate relationship. In this case, "yet," is used to indicate a development of contrast.

Freestanding words at the beginning of sentences such as adverbs, yes, and no also need a comma after them. These add additional information to the sentence, but they themselves are also not necessary to close the sentence. Think of them as mini dependent clauses.

"Yes, this example is necessary."

"No, this is not the last example."

"Finally, I will stop writing about point number one."

2. Lists

Commas are useful for separating individual entities, articles, objects, items, and descriptions in lists. See what I did there? Lists usually include the conjunction, "and," or, "or," to communicate relationship between the items in the list. The comma that goes before the conjunction and the last item in the list is commonly referred to as the oxford comma. I will acknowledge that there are different schools of thought on the necessity of the oxford comma. The (somewhat humorous) example at the beginning of this post outlines occasions where the oxford comma serves to provide greater clarity to the sentence. My advice? Always use it! Extra clarity never hurts.

"I need to buy brioche buns green leaf lettuce tomatoes pickles and patties."

How many items do I need to buy? It's hard to tell right? Also where do you buy lettuce tomatoes?

"I need to buy brioche buns, green leaf lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and patties."

Notice how now, it's much clearer where one item starts and one item ends. Even if the, "and," before the last item, "patties," is an easy visual separator, using the oxford comma is good practice! Other than the obvious fact that now you know what I'm having for lunch, you are able to understand that I intend to buy each individual item on my list. If I used, "or," instead of, "and," there you would understand that I intend to buy only one item from that list and exclude the others. That would ruin my burger party!

Lists aren't confined to just grocery lists. What about descriptions? Let's say I want to describe the burger I just grilled.

"It was the perfect, juicy, sizzling burger."

Yum! Note that we use commas in lists for adjectives that describe one thing as well. Notice how we don't use a comma after the last descriptor, since we are not using a conjunction.

What if we have complex lists where the list items themselves contain commas? In that case we can use semicolons as separators, leaving the commas within the list items.

3. Direct Address

In sentences that directly address someone or something in a sentence, use a comma. This can come in front, in the middle, or at the end of sentences.

"Mark, you should switch to apple."

"You should switch, Mark, to apple."

"You should switch to apple, Mark."

Okay, the middle example was forced, but you get the idea. When direct addresses happen in the middle of the sentence, make sure to place commas before and after. Failing to signify direct addresses could result major confusion for who carries out the action of the verb and towards whom.

"Stop hitting children."

That probably would indicate that the person we are telling this to should face serious consequences.

"Stop hitting, children."

Okay, much better. Sounds much more like something a kindergarten teacher would proclaim every now and then. One comma. A world of difference.

There's so many more rules and concepts regarding commas. However, I believe embracing even just these three will be a game changer for a majority of your writing work. It's nothing new for most us. Just a good reminder that sometimes a forgotten comma can cost us unnecessary communication problems. So, edit your work, Mark.

And switch to apple.