Commas

Do you fall into a coma over commas? Well, this month's edition offers a few uses and the reasons for them.

Commas help separate items in a series. Of course, the old question of the final (serial) comma remains: Do we or don't we put in the comma before and? Most of the rulebooks are strongly suggesting using this final comma for clarity.

So, how many positions are available? Three? Four? Let's face it; the receptionist could also be the typist. If you mean four separate positions, the final comma makes them easier to see; without it, a reader could become confused.

Names and titles: When do we insert a comma between a name and a title?

Which is right?

The first one. We do not separate a title from its name when the name follows. Think about substituting an easy title such as Mr., Dr., or Ms. Would you ever write Mr., Tom Smith? Ms., Joan Smith? Probably not! A title is a title, even if it's more than one word!

What about this sentence?

Here, we need two commas because the words "staff supervisor" are not being used as a title; rather, they're being used to describe an occupation (the word "the" is the giveaway). So, we do need to separate them from the name that follows - with two commas, not one - exactly as we would do if we used parentheses around the name. Commas are usually the better choice, because parentheses are large and call attention to themselves.


Coordinate Adjectives

When two or more adjectives modify the same noun, we can either connect them with "and," or we can remove "and" and insert a comma. By the way, this is not an exact science. There can be disagreement over whether or not you'd even use "and" in the first place. But if you would, and you remove it, put a comma in.

Reminders
More / most importantly do not exist, at least in the way  everyone's using them. Use more / most important instead!  These phrases are really short forms of "what is more / most important."

Every day means each day. (I eat breakfast every day.)