Guide to spelling, punctuation and grammar

C
OMMAS
Commas cause many students difficulties: when to use them, when not
to use them. Some students think the best solution is to insert commas
all over the place so that their written work suffers from what we might
call ‘comma-itis’, a rash of unwanted commas cluttering up their work.
Look at this example:
The rock star, reacted angrily, to the interviewer’s questions, and
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RAMMAR AND ACCURACY

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threatened to walk out there and then, his manager, persuaded him
to stay which the disgruntled singer reluctantly did. The questions,
continued to irritate him however until finally he walked out, later
he issued a statement, denying he had acted out of pique and
blaming, the stupid questions asked by the interviewer.
The correct version is:
The rock star reacted angrily to the interviewer’s question and
threatened to walk out there and then. His manager persuaded him
to stay, which the disgruntled singer reluctantly did. The questions
continued to irritate him, however, until finally he walked out. Later
he issued a statement denying he had acted out of pique and
blaming the stupid questions asked by the interviewer.
Note the differences between these two versions. The examples of
‘comma-itis’, the use of unnecessary and incorrect commas, have
vanished. Look at where commas have been correctly used and decide
why they have been inserted there.