Just Commas: 9 Rules to Master Comma Usage

Commas are the most often used punctuation markand the most often misused. Commas used incorrectly can seriously interfere with communication. A missing comma, or a comma in the wrong place, can confuse readers or even change the meaning. Worse, mistakes in punctuation can make you seem less knowledgeable.

"Just Commas" is an easy-to-use guide that includes examples, explanations, and practice exercises to help you master comma usage. Youll quickly find answers to such questions as whether to use the series comma; how to avoid run-on sentences; when to use commas to separate phrases from the rest of the sentence; when to use commas in a series of adjectives; how to use commas with quotation marks and other punctuation marks; and how to use commas in dates, addresses, and numbers.

Diane Lutovich and Janis Fisher Chan, a former English teacher and a former copy editor, have been teaching business writing for more than 20 years to people in corporations, financial institutions, the professions, government agencies, and other organizations. They are also instructors at the University of California Business Extension.

In addition to "Just Commas," they are the authors of of four self-study writing skills books: "Professional Writing Skills," "Grammar for Grownups," "Writing Performance Documentation," and "How to Write Reports and Proposals.

Diane Lutovich's poems have been published in The Atlantic Review, Under the Sleeping Maiden, Earth's Daughters, and Medaphors, and she is the author of "A Final Cutting of the Cord: Midlife Women Talk About the Deaths of Their Elderly Mothers" (Bayood Publishing, 2000).

Janis Fisher Chan is the author of "Inventing Ourselves Again: Women Face Middle Age" (Sybil Publications, 1996) and, with Linda Mukai, of "Living With Dying" (Butterfield Press, 1996). She is also a playwright.