In a previous blog post, we tried to alleviate some of the anxiety around grammar rules by focusing on commas and giving you some of the common scenarios in which you'll make decisions about whether to include commas or not. There are some specific situations where you should use commas to aid reader comprehension, and you can be confident that doing so can only help, regardless of whether you are articulating an argument in a term paper or composing a post for social media.
Use a comma to set off geographical names from the rest of the sentence (such as "City, Country" or "City, State"). Place a comma after the country/state if the sentence continues after the location is given.
Example: I learned everything I know about psychology from Frederick Chilton, PhD.
Use a comma before an independent clause that follows a dependent clause. (Note: an independent clause can stand alone as a sentence; a dependent clause needs to be paired with something to make it a complete sentence.)
Use a comma before a dependent clause that follows an independent clause, but only if the sentence illustrates some kind of contrast.
Good luck navigating these situations and using commas to help clarify for readers the structure of your sentences.
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