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.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
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.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
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.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Hi, Chicago—I’m replying to your email answer more than seven years later because I’m still trying to wrap my head around punctuating sentences like these:
She was still so shocked, it took her a while to find her voice.
He was so fixated on his game, he had no idea I’d entered the room.
Do they require the comma? Based on your seven-year-old email reply (“I don’t know of any such rule”), I’ve been deleting most such commas. Occasionally, I’ll replace the comma with a semicolon. But I guess what I’d like to know now is this: Is there any rule (preferably somewhere I can cite) that governs this type of sentence?
A. I’m happy to report that after seven years of intensive focus on your question, the CMOS team has still not encountered a rule for this. Please note that when it’s this hard to find a rule, it’s likely that nobody knows one or cares. We hope this helps you move on. If not, please write again in 2020.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. All of this plus installation, at no cost to you. Is the comma necessary here? I think it is added sometimes to denote “and,” but then maybe an em dash would achieve greater dramatic pause or surprise.
A. The comma makes a difference. As you have it, with the comma, it seems to mean that for no cost you get “all of this and installation.” Without a comma, the meaning might be taken as “All of this [for a price]—plus installation at no cost.” Rather than depend on a comma, rewrite for clarity.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. In the following sentence, is a comma required (or even recommended) before “and her ten-year-old son”? “She is especially distraught when her preteen daughter, Pam, rebels by befriending a navel-pierced neighbor and her ten-year-old son, Joe, betrays her by making contact with the father.” I see this clause as being introduced by the same when that introduced the clause before it, and I would opt for no comma. Since the sentence is long, would it be acceptable to repeat the word when before the other clause? (“She is especially distraught when her preteen daughter, Pam, rebels by befriending a navel-pierced neighbor and when her ten-year-old son, Joe, betrays her by making contact with the father.”)
A. Adding when is a fine strategy, but there’s nothing wrong with using a comma. Something must be done: otherwise, readers may assume that Pam befriends the neighbor and the neighbor’s son, and we stumble when the son turns out to have a different verb (and a different mom). While it might be technically correct to omit a comma between compound objects, it’s usually not correct to ambush the reader, and it’s always correct to use a comma to untangle a long and misleading sentence.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I work for a company that says they’re focused on building client relationships. However, they insist when we address an email to one of our own clients whom we know well that we put a comma in hi, hello, or good morning, Joe. I have been told that this is a very formal way of addressing someone. Help!
A. The comma in a greeting of direct address is not very formal; it’s been the standard form for a very long time in all kinds of correspondence. Omitting the comma, on the other hand, is casual, and you never know which readers (especially anyone over forty) might consider it an error. Of course everyone understands that email is not a formal means of communication, but depending on the kind of business you are in, you might want your email to reflect a certain level of professionalism. If so, the comma is a good idea.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. I have a question about using a comma with the word and. I am an editorial intern for an art journal, and the most recent piece I am editing has a sentence written thus: “Henry Darger is both illuminating and, at times, frustrating.” The question we have been debating in the office for a significant amount of time today is whether or not there should be a comma inserted after the word illuminating to offset the and.
A. Since you would not put a comma after illuminating if you omitted the parenthetical “at times” (Henry Darger is both illuminating and frustrating), there’s no reason to add one just because the parenthetical is there. Please see CMOS 6.26 for a related comma issue (which I can imagine your office also debating for a significant amount of time).
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Do I need to put a comma here: fresh, local produce?
A. The comma is optional, depending on what you mean. Fresh local produce = local produce that is fresh. Fresh, local produce = produce that is fresh and local. In this case, there is almost no difference in meaning, but sometimes a comma is significant: for instance, a heavy wet blanket is not necessarily a heavy, wet blanket.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. In the sentence “Researchers at the University of California, Riverside and the University of Southern California determined . . . ,” should there be a comma after “San Diego”?
A. (Is this a trick question?) There should be a comma after Riverside.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]