Commas That Signal a Pause or Break

Use Commas That Signal a Pause or Break as an introduction, then the review as practice. Assign the comma splice report before students edit their own essays.

Add commas after interjections, around names and before tag questions in lines from a play rehearsal. Commas mark a pause after an interjection, around a phrase that interrupts a sentence, around the name of a person being spoken to and before a tag question. The directions on the page read: These lines were spoken at a play rehearsal. Add the commas that show each pause. Some lines need one comma and some need two. An answer key is included.

Yes, both. We made it for 8th grade punctuation, and it works the same at home or at school. At home, a student can work through it alone and then go over it with you, which shows quickly what is solid and what needs another look. In class it works as independent practice, homework or a warm-up, and you can print one copy or a full set.

A comma splice joins two complete sentences with only a comma. Fix it with a period, a semicolon, a comma and a conjunction, or a word such as although that starts a subordinate clause.

Put a comma after an interjection such as well or oh, around the name of a person being spoken to, around an interrupting phrase such as by the way, and before a tag question such as don't you.

Yes, a phrase such as Hoping to spot whales at the start of a sentence takes a comma after it. A gerund phrase that is the subject, such as Tagging young sea turtles, does not.