THE MECHANICS OF WRITING #3:

COMMAS, DASHES, HYPHENS, AND PARENTHESIS

1. Commas
Commas are probably one of the most important punctuation marks, the most often used, and the
most often misused and abused. The following are the most common uses of the Comma.

Never use a comma and a dash or opening parenthesis together. If the context requires a comma
after a parenthetical remark (as it does here), the comma follows the closing parenthesis.

1.1. Commas and Lists

When you have a list of three or more elements (words, phrases, or clauses), use a comma to
separate them. Example:
 My favourite flowers are irises, tulips, and lilies.
 To find the lab, go outside, turn left at the tree, walk
about fifty yards, and turn right.

1.2. Commas and Independent Clauses

When you have independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction (and, or, for, nor, so, but,
yet), use a comma to separate them. Example:
 Standard therapy may be less expensive, but sometimes
experimental treatments are worth the money.
 Parliament passed the bill by a wide margin, and the
president signed it into law.

1.3. Commas and Introductory Clauses and Phrases

When you begin a sentence with an introductory clause (like this one) or a long phrase, use a
comma after it to set it off from your independent clause (a.k.a. main sentence). Example:
 Before moving back east, my parents will have to sell their
house.
 After carefully studying all the available historical
documents and personal writings, scholars could come to no
definitive conclusion.

1.4. Commas and Adjectives

When you have two adjectives both modifying the same thing, use a comma to separate them. To
test whether or not you might need a comma, see if the word and could logically fit in between
them. If so, then add the comma. Example:
 The careful, patient student will use good punctuation.
(CORRECT--the student is both careful and patient.)
 The careful AND patient student will use good punctuation.
(CORRECT)
 The blue, cotton dress is on sale. (INCORRECT)
 The blue AND cotton dress is on sale. (INCORRECT--unless
you're talking about 2 different dresses.)
 The blue cotton dress is on sale. (CORRECT--blue is
describing what type of cotton.)
 We listened to an absorbing, frightening account of the event.

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1.5. Commas between items in a series

 The experience demanded blood, sweat, and tears.

1.6. Commas and Dates, Names, and Addresses

Commas are also used to separate the elements that make up dates and names. This is best
illustrated in the following examples:
 January 1, 2002 (more common format).
 1st of January, 2002 (traditional format falling out of use)
 But not in the format, 1 January 2002.
 W.K. Wimsatt, Jr. (a title included after the surname).
 Smith, David. (in a bibliography entry where the surname goes first).
 Tony Blair of 10 Downing Street, London.

1.7. Commas and numbers

Commas are place between the 3rd and 4th digits from the right, the 6th and 7th, and so on. Example:
 1,000
 20,000
 7,654,321

Exceptions to this include page and line numbers, addresses, and four digit year numbers. Example:
 On page 3322
 At 4132 Broadway
 In 2001
 But not in 20,000 BC

1.8. Commas around parenthetical elements

Use commas to set off a phrase that acts as additional information to the sentence. Example:
 The invention of the printing press, the first in a series
changes regarding the written word, completely changed
people’s lives.

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2. Dashes
Although this may seem obvious we need to differentiate between a dash and a hyphen. A dash is
two consecutive hyphens “--“ (some publishing houses use an elongated hyphen symbol “—“). A
hyphen is simple "-".

2.1. Dashes and interruptions

A dash is used to make a side comment or explanation that seems like and abrupt shift from the
main flow of the sentence. Similar to the use of parenthetical commas (see section 1.8.) a dash is
placed at the beginning and end of the comment or explanation, but there is no space between the
dash and the text before and after it. Example:
 The low unemployment figures--Lisbon, for example, had its
lowest rate for twenty years--masked the growing social
unrest.

2.2. Dashes around parenthetical elements that require a number of internal commas

 Many twentieth-century American writers--Faulkner, Capote,

Styron, Welty, to name but a few-—come from the South.

3. Hyphens
3.1. Hyphens and prefixes

Hyphens are used to join prefixes to capitalised words. Example:

 In a recent post-Renaissance study….

But, hyphens are not used after prefixes for non-capitalised words. Example:
 The patient was suffering from prenasal drip.

3.2. Hyphens and compound words

Hyphens join two or more words so that they act as if they were one word (a compound word).
Examples:
 Blair employed the well-established policy of “Britannia
waives the rules”.
 This was a first-rate example of a misunderstanding

3.3. Hyphens and coequal nouns

Hyphens are used to link coequal nouns. Example:

 Lluis Llach is a famous Catalan singer-songwriter.
 The symbolic soldier-poet, Garcilaso de la Vega, died at an
early age.

NOTE: Adverbs do not form hyphenated compound words. Example:

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  Barça made a wildly unsuccessful debut in the league by
losing 0-3.

However, regarding these last two points you need to bear in mind that there are a number of word
combinations that do not require a hyphen and are written as one word, or are written as two
separate words. Example:
 The art of storytelling is being lost with the advent of the
printed word.
 Even though they were hardworking employees, the company
still made them redundant.
 Social security tax has been the subject of recent debate in
Parliament.

4. Parenthesis
4.1. Parenthesis to include and additional comment.

Parentheses, like dashes, indicate a text that is an abrupt break from the general flow of the
sentence. In this particular use parentheses or dashes are a matter of personal choice, although there
is a space before and after the parenthetical marks. Example:
 The low unemployment figures (Lisbon, for example, had its
lowest rate for twenty years) masked the growing social
unrest.

4.2. Parenthesis and documenting references

One case where only parenthesis is acceptable is when there is some kind of documentation
reference in the text. Example:
 Asides, or additional information are thus represented in
three different manners (see sections 1.8., 2.2., and 4.1).