Q. Is it necessary to have commas before and after an appositive when referring to coaches? Example: We went to see Bengals coach Paul Brown to interview one of his players.
A. Coaches receive the same treatment as everyone else. Use commas with an appositive if the expression is not restrictive—that is, if it would make sense set off by parentheses:
We went to see Bengals coach Paul Brown.
We went to see the Bengals coach (Paul Brown).
We went to see the Bengals coach, Paul Brown.
See CMOS 5.23 and 6.27–29 for more on restriction and commas.
Q. What punctuation is required for “including but not limited to”? I see many different opinions from many different sources.
A. No punctuation is required, but commas after including and to would work just fine; they may be helpful if the phrase introduces a long or complex list. Dashes would work as well.
Q. In my role as an editor, I frequently face preposition-conjunction combinations such as this: “The analysis assesses the availability of and access to community services.” Does this need commas?
A. Commas around the second phrase (“and access to”) will indicate that it is somewhat parenthetical, an afterthought, so use them only if that’s the writer’s intention.
Q. Hello there. Is it okay to use a comma after Anderson? “This is disgusting,” said Anderson, “The man I hired to mow the lawn has missed a few spots.” According to the models you provide, you seem to prefer a period rather than a comma, but is the comma definitely wrong?
A. Yes, the comma is definitely wrong. The test is to write the sentence without “said Anderson” and see whether a comma works: “This is disgusting, The man I hired to mow the lawn has missed a few spots.” You can see that you need a period.
Q. Is it a grave error that I wrote “If I’d had time, alone, with my mother’s body, I might have caressed her face” in lieu of “If I’d had time alone with my mother’s body”? I understand that I felt a pause around the word alone and therefore decided to use the commas. I also realize that the pause doesn’t mean that a comma is necessary. Using the commas around alone seemed to underscore the gravity of the situation, the aloneness of the situation. Will an editor be inclined to throw away my manuscript because of a small error like this?
A. A wayward comma is rarely a “grave error.” A good editor will ask you to clarify your intended meaning and then work with you to get the punctuation right.
Q. I have been debating with my copyeditor guidelines concerning commas and dates. We consulted CMOS on the topic but we still differ in opinion. I prefer “In the summer of 1812 General Hagerthy moved his troops” versus “In the summer of 1812, General Hagerthy moved his troops.” “Early in 1946 an opportunity came for my cousin” versus “Early in 1946, an opportunity came for my cousin.” I argue that a comma after the year is not needed. Gurus of style, please opine who is correct.
A. Rejoice: everyone is correct. Higher authorities are not interested in legislating commas to this degree. Peace.
Q. In this sentence, “Inside the Bellevue, Washington, laboratory, where innovations are under way . . .” it seems to me that the comma after Washington distracts from the meaning. Since “Bellevue, Washington” describes “laboratory,” could one omit the comma? Or is that a hard, fast, no-exceptions-ever rule?
A. Although we never promote our guidelines as hard, fast, no-exceptions-ever rules, the second comma is Chicago style as well as standard use outside Chicago. The idea is to treat Washington as parenthetical, which requires a pair of commas.
Q. How do you determine if it is “In the 1970s bad things happened” or “In the 1970s, bad things happened”? Comma or no comma? Why?
A. You can determine it by consulting a style manual like CMOS. You can go to the table of contents and look for the chapter on punctuation (chapter 6), then scan down the list of topics until you find a section on commas. Within that section you can look for the paragraph that addresses your issue: 6.31, “Commas with adverbial phrases.” There you can read that “although an introductory adverbial phrase can usually be followed by a comma, it need not be unless misreading is likely. Shorter adverbial phrases are less likely to merit a comma than longer ones.” You can decide that your phrase does not need to be set off by a comma. Why? Because misreading without the comma is unlikely.
Q. Hi, I have a simple comma question. Here’s the sentence:
Readers will understand that he is subject to the expectation that he must be the sole financial provider for his family, and that he is hesitant to get married because he is unemployed and without prospects.
I think the comma is unnecessary, since “that he is hesitant to get married because he is unemployed and without prospects” is not really an independent clause. Plus, it seems clear and readable enough without it. But it was pointed out to me that “he is hesitant to get married because he is unemployed and without prospects” is an independent clause, so there should be a comma. What do you say?
A. All dependent clauses contain an independent one; your critic is throwing you a red herring. When you stick that in front of a clause, it suddenly has to depend on another clause to make grammatical sense—that’s why we call it “dependent.” I agree with your analysis about the comma, but it’s not wrong to add a comma in such a long sentence in order to give the reader a breather. Sometimes, however, that need for a breather hints that a sentence could be improved by rewriting.
Q. Does the following sentence require a comma after says? The person who says “I no longer get anything out of reading” has stopped running up against questions to think about as he or she reads.
A. Commas commonly appear before quotation marks—for instance, there is a strong convention of using a comma after expressions like “He said” or “She asked.” There may be a widespread belief that the comma is required before a quotation, although there isn’t necessarily a grammatical reason for one. If a quotation is short or if a comma would interrupt needlessly, you probably don’t need one. In your sentence, the quoted material is a direct object within a dependent clause; a comma would do little to help clarify that.