When Not to Use Commas

By Gururaj B.S. and Prabhat N.R.

If you still haven’t forgotten that you ought to obey the rules, here goes yet another commandment:

Don’t use commas!

Feeling ecstatic? You have all reasons to, for as a writer, you could not have craved for anything better than to avoid the most versatile, yet the most incorrectly used punctuation mark. Read on, and we guarantee that your ecstasy will wilt.

We asked you to not use commas only in the following (and a few other not-so-common scenarios not discussed in this article) scenarios:

After a coordinating conjunction

When you use a coordinating conjunction (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, and So) to join two sentences, use the comma before the coordinating conjunction.

INCORRECT: He had been working as a technical communicator for 5 years but, he did find it was necessary to improve his writing skills.
To separate a subject from its predicate

Most of the writers tend to use a comma to separate the subject from its predicate, especially when the subject is a long Noun phrase or clause.

INCORRECT: The tickets for the third and final one-day international match between arch rivals India and Pakistan, were sold out within a week after the venue was announced.
To separate compound predicates

A sentence may have one subject and multiple predicates. In such sentences, don’t use a comma to separate the predicates.

INCORRECT: Richard toured the whole of Australia, and conducted an exclusive research on the living habits of aborigines.

In the above sentence, Richard is the subject, and toured the whole of Australia and conducted an exclusive research on the living habits of aborigines are both predicates.
To separate a Verb from its Object

This usage is predominant in sentences that introduce enumerations.

INCORRECT: The application comprises four modules. They are,
- ABC
- XYZ
- DEF
- SDE

In the above sentence, are is a Verb that takes the module names (ABC, XYZ, DEF, and SDE) for its object. It is therefore incorrect to use a comma after are.
After an introductory Adverbial clause followed immediately by the Verb in the Main clause

INCORRECT: After updating the user manual, send it for review.

In the above sentence, After updating the user manual is the introductory Adverbial clause, and send it for review is the Main clause; the Verb send immediately follows the Adverbial clause.
In place of a semicolon

In the context of comma usage, there are two ways of joining two independent clauses (sentences):
1. Using a comma with a coordinating conjunction
2. Using a semicolon
Whenever you use a comma to join two independent clauses, you have to use it with a coordinating conjunction. The comma alone doesn’t suffice.

INCORRECT: Technical Communicators are in great demand, the technical-writing community is growing at a stupendous rate.

In the above sentence, you must use a coordinating conjunction (like and) or a semicolon:
CORRECT: Technical Communicators are in great demand, and the technical-writing community is growing at a stupendous rate.

OR

Technical Communicators are in great demand; the technical-writing community is growing at a stupendous rate.

NOTE: You can use a semicolon only when the independent clauses are closely related.

The comma usage where two independent clauses are joined by only a comma (without a coordinating conjunction) is referred to as Comma Splice; the intended-to-be compound sentence is called a Run-On or Fused sentence.

(Please send your questions and suggestions to Gururaj B.S. and Prabhat N.R. )

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