The Confusing Comma, 3

I’ve had a lot of questions over the last few months about the use of the introductory comma, the comma used to set off introductory material in a sentence.

Let’s look at the following sentences without commas. Try to determine if a comma is needed, and if so, where the comma should go. (The examples I’m using come from Punctuation Plain and Simple by Edgar C. and Jean A. Alward.)

1. Walking through the woods on a brisk fall day can provide us with many rewarding experiences.

2. Having checked all accounts receivable the clerk concluded that somebody must have given him $24 too much.

3. To achieve the highest standards possible the school committee hired the best-qualified teachers available.

4. Without any obligation order your sample record today.

5. In a few cases you will find a winner.

6. At the edge of the deep Main woods near Moosehead Lake he built a small log cabin.

7. Consequently Tom must make the decision.

Okay, now let’s look at the answers and the reasons we use or don’t use a comma in these sentences.

1. Walking through the woods on a brisk fall day can provide us with many rewarding experiences.
This sentence doesn’t need a comma. The gerund phrase (Walking through the woods on a brisk fall day) is the subject of the sentence and can’t be separated from its predicate (can provide).

2. Having checked all accounts receivable, the clerk concluded that somebody must have given him $24 too much.
This is a participial (adjective) phrase describing the clerk. So it needs to be set apart from the rest of the sentence with a comma. Even if we moved that phrase to after clerk, we would need to set it off with commas: The clerk, having checked all accounts receivable, concluded that somebody must have given him $24 too much.

Hint: If you can put the participial phrase from the beginning of the sentence into the sentence somewhere, it will need commas, and therefore, needs a comma when used as an introduction to the sentence.

3. To achieve the highest standards possible, the school committee hired the best-qualified teachers available.
This is an infinitive phrase (to achieve is an infinitive: to + a verb). Again, for clarity and because of the natural pause after such a phrase, we need the comma.


That’s enough for today. Tomorrow we will cover the four other examples of introductory commas.


Today’s Bible reading: Genesis 18–19, Romans 7