Name: ________________________P:_____
The Mighty Comma:
The Rules
You Need to Know
Rule
Appositive
Serial Comma (Oxford Comma)
Introductory Element
Interrupter
Direct Address
Coordinate Adjectives
, FANBOYS
Dependent Clause, Independent Clause
and… Dialogue
Explanation/ Definition
Appositive= ____________________________________________________________________________
Directions: Circle the appositive. Draw an arrow back to the noun it redefines.
1. William Shakespeare, the most well-known playwright, wrote comedies and tragedies.
2. Shakespeare’s tragedies, plays ending with a main character’s death, include Macbeth and Hamlet.
3. Shakespeare’s comedies, plays ending with marriage, include A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
4. T’was, a contraction, means ‘it was’.
5. Michelle Pfeiffer, a famous actress, stars in a modern play.
Directions: Combine sentences by creating appositives.
6. My uncle is a tough guy. My uncle was a former Marine.
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7. I am on Supernova. Supernova is the best team.
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8. Willy Wonka is a unique character. Willy Wonka is my favorite fictional weirdo.
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9. Charlie is a character who changes. Charlie is a dynamic character.
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10. Veruka Salt is a character who stays the same. Veruka Salt is a flat character.
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Direct Address = _____________________________________________________________________________
Directions: Place a comma to separate the name of the person you are talking to from the sentence. Remember, when
you speak to anyone and say their name or nickname, you must separate the name from the rest of the sentence.
1. Mom will you please listen to me?
2. Dad can you come pick me up?
3. Mohammad stop fidgeting.
4. Stop fidgeting Mohammad.
5. Turn in your paper Ryan.
6. Ryan turn in your paper.
7. Jonathan can you walk a little faster?
THE SERIAL COMMA (OXFORD COMMA) =____________________________________________________________
Directions: Correctly punctuate the following sentences by separating the items in each list.
1. I ate pizza garlic knots and spaghetti for dinner.
2. Verbal situational and dramatic irony are the three types you need to know.
3. Sound devices such as alliteration assonance and rhyme help people memorize poems.
4. Personification similes and metaphors are all ways to describe something in a new way.
5. Three types of sentences include simple compound and complex.
Directions: Use the Oxford comma to separate the series of phrases in the sentences below.
6. I ran to the store bought a pint of Chunky Monkey and ate the whole thing.
7. I asked for help on my test an extension on my writing assignment and the answers to the worksheet.
8. Cleaning out lockers emptying out notebooks and returning books are a few things you need to do soon.
9. To settle your school account you can return the book replace the book or pay the fine for the book.
10. To analyze a sentence eliminate prepositional phrases find the subject then find the verb.
Introductory Elements = _____________________________________________________________________
Directions: Place a comma to separate the introductory element from the sentence.
1. First of all we have a test to take.
2. However I will never give up.
3. I was wondering do you have a curfew?
4. Last I will climb the mountain.
5. In contrast the new poem was a concrete poem.
6. Similarly the new poem was written to look like the subject of the poem.
7. Running down the hall I tried to catch the butterfly.
INTERRUPTER: _____________________________________________________________________________
Directions: use commas to separate the non-essential information from the rest of the sentence. Remember, if you can
delete it and it doesn’t affect the meaning of the sentence, then it is non-essential and needs commas.
1. Your essays by the way are due tomorrow.
2. Essays as you know count twice in your average.
3. In accordance with the rules you will receive a yellow card.
4. The player in all honesty did not deserve to be ejected from the game.
5. My health final the least of my worries was actually the hardest final.
6. A simile I suddenly remembered is a comparison of dissimilar things using like or as.
7. The metaphor however does not use like or as in the comparison.
8. Personification in a different way is also a comparison.
Coordinate Adjectives = _____________________________________________________________________
Two tests to determine whether adjectives are coordinate are the following:
 See whether “and” can be smoothly placed between them.
 See whether the order of the adjectives can be reversed
I walked the lively, happy poodle.
I walked the happy, lively poodle.
I walked the happy and lively poodle.
In this example, a comma belongs between happy and lively because they can be reversed & ‘and’ can be placed in between them
Directions: Add commas if the adjectives are coordinate. Can you reverse them? Can you put ‘and’ in between them?
1. Slippery treacherous roads are dangerous.
2. My brother is a happy enthusiastic helpful guest.
3. We enjoyed the clean crisp smell of the mountain air.
4. We ate at the clean kitchen table.
5. She ate the sweet juicy organic apple with a vengeance.
6. Hannah loves wearing silver shiny slippers to school.
7. Hannah walked the young golden retriever.
8. Tristina’s light blue dress fluttered in the breeze.
9. The awkward shy quiet teenager felt nervous about going to the dance.
10. The angry aggressive insane crowd began to shout.
,FANBOYS : ____________________________________________________________________________
Directions: Put the punctuation in where it belongs. S + V
,FANBOYS
S+V
1. You are going to the beach and I am, too.
2. You are cool and you are funny.
3. I like grammar but I don’t always understand the rules.
4. I don’t know much about algebra but I know one plus one is two.
5. I do not want to take a test nor do I want to write another essay.
6. I don’t know much about fighting but I know I will fight for you.
7. I am studying comma rules so I will get an awesome grade on the final.
8. I avoid banana peels for they can cause a person to slip.
9. I am not ready to go to the high school yet it is time for me to leave.
10. Give me your cookie or I will be really furious.
Dependent Clause, Independent Clause
Directions: Put a commas where necessary.
1. If you leave me now you’ll take away the greatest part of me.
2. If you give a mouse a cookie he will eat it all.
3. After the pigeon drove the bus we were glad to be alive.
4. The DJ played music until the dance ended.
5. Before you cut your own hair you should sharpen your scissors.
6. Because he won the comma he is very happy.
7. When Booth fired the Derringer he changed the course of history.
8. While we fear the unknown we should also embrace it.
9. Until you show some manners you will not be able to dine out at a restaurant again!
10. Since you are so tall can you reach the posters for me, Nick?
11. I will stop writing complex sentence because I ran out of ideas.
And last…
PUNCTUATING DIALOGUE:__________________________________________________________________
Directions: Speaker tags are underlined for you.


Put the quotation marks around what is spoken out loud
Add in commas and other punctuation in where it belongs.
1. Give me that she demanded.
2. She said Good morning.
3. Good morning she said.
4. Mr. Bound said There’s a test tomorrow.
5. Take out your lab papers said Mr. Fox.
6. I love commas Peter shouted.
7. Peter shouted I love commas!
BE THE EDITOR
Directions: Edit the following 2 paragraphs by placing commas where they belong.
My Friend's Visit
Jenny my best friend from summer camp is coming for a visit this weekend. Although she is from a big city with a lot of
exciting things to do I am sure she will enjoy visiting our farm. She will enjoy swimming in our pond riding horses and
picking berries for pies. Matt my only brother is afraid she will get bored on our farm but I think she will love it here. With
all of the things Mom and I have planned she won't have time to be bored. I'm afraid she will however be very tired each
night. Maybe this visit will be so much fun she will want to come back again next summer.
Amazing Ice Cream
Hey if you want to know where to buy the most amazing ice cream in the state of Texas I can tell you. Brain Freeze Ice
Cream Parlor owned by my cousin Amy has the creamiest yummiest ice cream in the South. She offers some really exotic
flavors like jalapeño fruit swirl grasshopper mint and green tea freeze but she also offers normal flavors like chocolate
vanilla strawberry etc. This variety is what makes her shop so popular. Trust me if you are ever in Houston Texas stop in
for a taste.