Comma Crimes, Part One
Supplementary Materials for the "Comma Crimes, Part One" Workshop
Clauses have subject and verbs. A subject is who or what the clause is about, and a verb expresses an action or state of being performed by the subject. Independent clauses (also called main clauses) can stand alone as sentences because they express complete thoughts. Dependent clauses (also called subordinate clauses) begin with subordinating words, so they do not express complete thoughts and must be joined to at least one independent clause to form a grammatical sentence. Phrases lack a subject, or they lack a verb, or they lack both; they also do not express complete thoughts and must be joined to independent clauses.
When a dependent clause or a phrase precedes an independent clause, you need to add a comma.
You do not need a comma when a phrase or a dependent clause follows an independent clause.
Consecutive independent clauses can be separated by periods, semicolons, or commas in front of coordinating conjunctions, but they cannot be separated by a commas alone (without coordinating conjunctions).
Exercises
This page is under construction--check back for more exercises.
Grammar Exercise #1: Recognizing Independent and Dependent Clauses and Grammar Exercise #1 Key
Grammar Exercise #2: Recognizing Independent Clauses and Dependent Clauses and Grammar Exercise #2 Key