Breaking up a list
Commas can be used to separate items in a list. In this case
the last item must be preceded by ‘and’:
Johnny played hockey, soccer, rugby, lacrosse and
tennis.not:
Johnny played hockey, soccer, rugby, lacrosse, tennis.Commas can be used to separate a list of main clauses. The
last one must also be preceded by ‘and’.
Kit was listening to her Walkman, David was trying to
do his homework, Mum was feeding the babyand Dad
was reading the paper.If the ‘and’ had been missed out and a comma used instead
after ‘baby’, it would have been wrong. Here is the incorrect
version:
Kit was listening to her Walkman, David was trying to
do his homework, Mum was feeding the baby, Dad was
reading the paper.Look at the following example:
The sea was calm, the sun was shining, the beach was
empty, Anne felt at peace with the world.This is wrong because there is a comma after ‘empty’ instead
of ‘and’. Here is the correct version.
34 / PART ONE: THE BASICS