Where should commas be used? That is one of the most common mistakes I use in my writing. I was thinking about this problem I have and I remembered the old, but very helpful tool, FANBOYS. The acronym FANBOYS means that a comma is supposed to be used before: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so. It's a very easy acronym to remember and it saves me a lot of grief when writing papers. Technically, it's called a coordinating conjunction when the comma is placed before one of these words.
Actual Rule: When using a conjunction to join two sentences, use a comma before the conjunction.
So that's easy enough. Whenever I see any of the words in FANBOYS I know that it's time to stick a comma in there.
Here's the website if you want to check out where I got my information and the answer to my question.
http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/egw/bryson.htm
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I have the exact same problem. I just have a problem remembering the fanboys. Some review from english 1010 but not much.
ReplyDeleteI feel archaic when it comes to English, I took 1010 back in 1990. I learned something from your post about FANBOYS. I had never heard of that acronym. So, thank you for pointing that one out to me. Good luck in the class.
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