A user on a writers’ message board wants to know about commas. He has written a sentence to the effect of, “The man had shiny black hair and large, twitchy ears,” and now he’s wondering whether that’s ...

HAPPY National Grammar Day, everyone. Today's offering is only marginally on grammar. We've asked "What is grammar anyway?" here at Johnson. The layperson would almost certainly answer "those ...

There’s no denying that commas are helpful little flecks of punctuation. They allow us to separate written clauses and do good work when especially numerous or complicated groups of things exist in a ...

The handsome, articulate, intelligent man wore a bright green midriff peasant blouse. Not really. No intelligent person would do that. But I offer up this sentence not as an example of fashion sense ...

Contrary to popular belief, commas don't just signify pauses in a sentence. In fact, precise rules govern when to use this punctuation mark. When followed, they lay the groundwork for clear written ...

Before I started teaching copy-editing courses, I assumed that one of the nice things about being a teacher would be sharing hard-earned expertise with wide-eyed students awed by my vast knowledge.

People who care about grammar love the serial comma, aka the Oxford or Harvard comma. They love it because they were instructed to use it in school, and they love it because it supposedly reduces ...

Commas are, important and shouldn’t just be, thrown in, anywhere. Like some, people, apparently do. With some, writers it’s like they, have a bucket full of commas and they, feel compelled to, use ...

Anyone who has written for the Brown Daily Herald has had to put up with the stain of barbarism that persists in its style guide. I am referring to the rule that prohibits the use of the Oxford comma, ...

Mid last week, I had just finished reading the sad story of Jean-Pierre Adams, a former footballer of international acclaim when I switched tabs on my office desktop computer to see what was new in my ...