Sign up for the daily CJR newsletter. The little word “and,” we probably all know, is a conjunction. It connects things: “She is tall and thin” means she is ...

When you reach the end of a sentence, you need a period, question mark, or exclamation point. Phrases or subordinate clauses standing alone are missing a subject or a verb or are stated in such a way ...

Here’s an interesting question posed to me recently: Which of the following sentences is punctuated correctly? Look for fresh basil at your local grocery store, and, if it isn’t available, tell the ...

Place a comma before these words only if what comes after could stand alone as a sentence (i.e., is an independent clause): Smith is passionate about making music, and he is encouraging of his band ...

A user on a writers’ message board wants to know about commas. He has written a sentence to the effect of, “The man had shiny black hair and large, twitchy ears,” and now he’s wondering whether that’s ...