Don’t Eschew The Comma!

August 13, 2021

“No wonder feelings run high about the comma. When it comes to improving the clarity of a sentence, you can nearly always argue that one should go in; you can nearly always argue that one should come out.”

– Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves

I often find myself wishing that my students’ feelings about the comma did run high! Instead, I find that many of my students give little thought to comma usage in their writing. And the sad fact is that many of them have never been formally taught even the most basic rules of comma usage. This has been the case for several years now; thus, I have to assume that there are more than a few practitioners who could use a refresher on the subject.

Lynne Truss, the author of the humorous best-seller on punctuation, Eats, Shoots and Leaves, writes that “lawyers eschew the comma as far as possible, regarding it as a troublemaker; and readers grow so accustomed to the dwindling incidence of commas in public places that when signs go up saying ‘No dogs please,’ only one person in a thousand bothers to point out that actually, as a statement, ‘no dogs please’ is an indefensible generalization, since many dogs do please, as a matter of fact; they rather make a point of it.”

As practicing lawyers, we should not “eschew the comma,” and we should not assume that our readers are comfortable with our sometimes undisciplined use of it. Fortunately, by observing just five key rules of comma usage, we can eliminate most of the comma errors in our writing, thus making our writing noticeably more readable. Here are those five key rules:

1. Use a comma after a sentence introduction of three or more words.

If the introduction is fewer than three words, it is still fine to use a comma after it, if doing so will improve the clarity of the sentence. Thus:

Although the witness was nervous, her testimony was very convincing.
After the hearing, the judge dismissed the case.
According to the complaint, the accident occurred more than three years ago.
First, the judge considered the claim that the court lacked personal jurisdiction.
Fortunately, the trial date was postponed.

2. Use a comma between each item in a list of three or more items.

The “serial comma” (affectionately known as “the Oxford comma”) has generated much debate over the years, but the better practice is to include a comma after every item in a list, including the item preceding the “and” or “or.” Thus:

The American flag is red, white, and blue.
The elements of a negligence claim are duty, breach, proximate cause, and damages.
Will you be arriving on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday?
For lunch, I had a small apple, a sandwich with ham and cheese, and yogurt.

Note the result if the “serial comma” is omitted in the last example; did the writer really put yogurt on the sandwich along with the ham and cheese?

3. Use a comma on both sides of a phrase that interrupts a sentence.

Such interruptions can take the form of transitional words, phrases of contrast, and appositives (phrases that explain the nouns they follow). Whatever the form of the interruption, the commas on either side assist the reader by “containing” the interrupting words. Thus:

The second question, however, is not as easy to answer.
The plaintiff, not the defendant, has the burden of persuasion in this case.
The opinion’s author, a long-standing member of the Court, was quite vocal in his disagreement with the appellant’s argument.

4. Use a comma to separate two independent clauses.

An independent clause has a subject and a verb and can stand on its own. Always use a comma to separate independent clauses that are joined by a coordinating conjunction (and, or, but, for, nor, so, yet). Never use a comma to separate an independent clause from a dependent clause (one that cannot stand on its own). Thus:

I budgeted my time wisely, so I was able to finish the trial brief well before the deadline.
My client was laid off from his job of twenty years and has been unable to find a comparable job.

An incorrect construction, but one that I’m seeing more frequently, is two independent clauses joined by a comma but without the coordinating conjunction: “My client was laid off from his job of twenty years, he has been unable to find a comparable job.” This erroneous construction can be corrected either by adding the conjunction “and” before the word “he” or by omitting the comma, adding the conjunction “and,” and omitting the word “he” (the second example above).

5. Use a comma before and after most quotations.

The comma after the quotation should be placed inside the quotation marks. Thus:

“Have the brief on my desk by noon,” Judge Jones said.
Judge Jones said, “Have the brief on my desk by noon.”
“Have the brief on my desk by noon,” Judge Jones said, “or I will cite you for contempt.”

Of course, as with almost all rules, the rules of comma usage have some exceptions; I can’t cover all of the exceptions here, any more than I can cover all of the rules. If you’ve read my previous columns, you know that I am a big fan of legal style manuals. The Aspen Handbook for Legal Writers, my current “go-to” legal style manual, has an excellent section on comma usage; I find myself consulting it quite often, sometimes on my students’ behalf and often for my own benefit. For most of us, some rules of correct comma usage are well-ingrained, and others we may have to look up repeatedly. Whatever the case, we should avoid “eschewing the comma” and take a disciplined approach to our comma usage, for the sake of our legal readers.

The preceding column originally appeared in the November 2012 edition of North Carolina Lawyer, and remains one of Laura Graham’s most popular “Writing That Works” contributions.

Laura Graham serves as Professor of Legal Writing and Director of Legal Analysis, Writing, and Research at Wake Forest University School of Law, where she has been teaching since 1999. She was the first recipient of the law school’s Graham Award for Excellence in Teaching Legal Research and Writing, which is named in her honor, and currently serves as president of the Association of Legal Writing Directors. Graham is a graduate of Wake Forest University and Wake Forest University School of Law. She welcomes emails from readers at [email protected].