Commas in Other Situations

Newsroom101

Commas with Hometowns, Ages, Cities/States/Countries, Party Affiliations and Academic Degrees, i.e. and e.g.

All of these situations follow a similar pattern. Note these examples:

Age and home town: Maxwell Relegon, 21, of Woodville, Fla., was the first to arrive.

Note: Maxwell Relegon,[comma] 21,[comma] of Woodville,[comma] Fla.,[comma] was the first to arrive.

Use commas in the same way without the "of."

Maxwell Relegon, 21, Woodville, Fla., was the first to arrive.

Note this usage: The Gainesville (Fla.) Sun. (No commas are needed here.)

City, state, country: Relegon's goodwill tour will take him from Athens, Greece, to Athens, Ga., and back to Woodville.

Note: Relegon's goodwill tour will take him from Athens,[comma] Greece,[comma] to Athens,[comma] Ga.,[comma] and back to Woodville.

Now here's the rule for the examples you just looked at.

Use commas to set off someone's hometown or age -- when it is used in apposition to (alongside) a name.

Maxwell Relegon, 21, arrived. Maxwell Relegon of Woodville, Fla., arrived.

Use commas to set off the name of a country or a state, if it follows the name of a city.

The Gainesville, Fla., university.

The same rule works with the short form of political party affiliations and academic degrees. Note how commas set off the affiliation or degree:

Tommy Irvin, D.-Ga., served as commissioner of agriculture.
The new governor was Charlie Crist, R.-Fla.
LaRae Donnellan, Ph.D., initiated the building's recycling plan.

I.e. and e.g.
Use commas in a similar way to set off i.e. and e.g., like this:

We start with the least common part of speech, i.e., the interjection.

The i.e. means "that is" or "that is to say."

Then we pick an easily-understood part of speech to study, e.g., the noun.

The e.g., means "for example."

Note that a comma comes before and after e.g. and i.e.

Practice using commas to set off Hometowns, Ages, Cities/States/Countries, and other stuff that follows a similar rule. [Under development.]

Commas in Direct Address, With Yes and No

Yes, Dr. Grow, I always use commas in a direct address.
George, do you understand that rule?
No, I do not.

Note:

Yes,[comma] Dr. Grow,[comma] I always use commas in a direct address. George,[comma] did you understand that rule?
No,[comma] I did not.

Practice using commas in direct address and with Yes and No. [Under development.]

Commas in Large Numbers
I am giving you 12,436 commas. Use them freely but wisely.

Practice

A short practice using commas with large numbers. [Under development.]