Pesky Punctuation: Phrases & Omissions

By now, I hope you are able to use commas, question marks, and colons with more ease. In this last post of the Pesky Punctuation series, we’ll look at the final use of punctuation: setting off phrases and indicating omissions. Commas are common for this function, but writers can also use dashes or ellipses when they want to highlight certain words or phrases or indicate omissions.

>> Don’t miss the other posts in the series: The Basics, Terminal Marks, Joining Independent Clauses, Joining Dependent & Independent Clauses, and Phrases & Omissions <<

SETTING OFF PHRASES

Commas are most common when setting off introductory phrases, but with interrupters, you can also use em dashes or brackets.

• Introductory Phrases. Whether or not a comma is used after an introductory word or phrase depends upon two things: grammatical function and length. Short introductory phrases (two to three words) that act like adverbs—indicating time, place, manner, or degree—do not need a comma. For example: “At three the parents will arrive to pick up their children.”

  If there is a chance readers may associate two separate elements as one, no matter how short the introductory phrase, use a comma. For example: “For Canada Day, Home Hardware will host a sale on barbecues.” Here, a comma is used to avoid people misreading “Canada Day Home” and interpreting it as one unit. The comma would not be necessary if the sentence were phrased as “For Canada Day the store will host a sale on barbecues.”

  • A small caveat: transitional and sentence adverbs. Transitional adverbs describe an action to be taken and always need a comma: “Next, add the dry ingredients and mix well. Then, roll the dough into balls.” Sentence adverbs modify the entire clause that follows and again always take a comma: “Fortunately, the event did not have to be cancelled due to the weather.”

  If an introductory phrase is longer than two or three words, it will very likely need a comma. In this case, these phrases can function as:

  • an adverb, which modifies an action (“In a small lakeside town in Canada, tourists come every summer to fish and swim.”);

  • an adjective, which modifies a noun (“Of the phone cases available, the OtterBox is the most reliable.”);

  • a present or a past participle, which are non-finite verbs that can function as both a verb and an adjective (“Before using the barbeque, make sure the propane tank is full.”).

• Interrupters. These are anything that set off, or adds to, a sentence by adding extra detail, transition, or emphasis. The information is nice, but not necessary. Whether you choose to set these off with commas, dashes, or brackets depends on how strongly you want to draw attention to the information. Remember, if the interrupter is removed the sentence must still make sense. Also, if an interrupter contains another interrupter, be sure to use the different punctuation marks to avoid confusion: “The dog, wearing their holiday bow tie (which was red), sat nicely for the pictures.”

  • Commas. This is the neutral choice. “The dog, wearing their holiday bow tie, sat nicely for the pictures.” The information is imparted as an aside, and we don’t feel strongly about it one way or another.

  • Em dashes. Uses em dashes if you really want to draw the reader’s attention to one specific detail. “The dog—wearing their holiday bow tie—sat nicely for the pictures.” Em dashes are also useful when the interrupter is long and contains internal punctuation (which helps ease of reading), or when it marks a break in syntax: “The dog wore their holiday bow tie—surely a must for all pet pictures this time of year—and sat nicely for the pictures.”

  • Brackets/Parentheses. These act the opposite of dashes and work to de-emphasize the phrase. “The dog (wearing their holiday bow tie) sat nicely for the pictures.” Use these around trivial and unimportant points, or a brief list of examples.

INDICATING OMISSIONS

Use punctuation to indicate the omission of a word, portions of a word, a letter, or a phrase. You’ll most commonly use em dashes and ellipses, but periods and apostrophes are also used.

• Em Dash. Use when omitting only part of a word (“F— it!”), or when a character is interrupted (“What did you sa—”).

• Ellipses. Use when you need to delete words in quoted material (“This book is … sure to delight all readers”) or to indicate faltering speech (“I … I can’t believe it!”).

• Periods. Used in (some) abbreviations, like U.S.A or Dr. Smith.

• Apostrophes. Use an apostrophe when individual letters are dropped in a phrase (“rock ’n’ roll”) or to affect a certain way of speaking (“gettin’ ”).

That’s it for my comprehensive series on punctuation. I truly hope this has helped you put your pesky punctuation woes to bed, but I’m happy to answer any questions so comment below!

Keep creating,

>> Don’t miss the other posts in the series: The Basics, Terminal Marks, Joining Independent Clauses, Joining Independent & Dependent Clauses, and Phrases & Omissions <<