11. Punctuating Opening Phrases and Clauses

11. Punctuate opening clauses and phrases properly:

an introductory phrase or clause of significant length at the beginning of the sentence must refer to the grammatical subject and be offset by a comma.

phrases:

adjective, appositive, participial, prepositional

clauses:

dependent

These incorrect sentences have introductions that dangle; they modify the wrong subjects.

Incorrect: While watching the football game commercials made the game last for four hours.

Correct:

While watching the football game, we realized that the commercials made the game last for four hours.

Incorrect: Strong and self-reliant, the thought of living alone in the wilderness for a week was appealing.

Correct: Strong and self-reliant, I thought living alone in the wilderness for a week was appealing.

Incorrect:

After hiking in the mountains for eight hours with only two handfuls of sunflower seeds in my belly, the sight of highway was welcome.

Correct:

After hiking in the mountains for eight hours with only two handfuls of sunflower seeds in my belly, I welcomed the sight of the highway.

The following incorrect sentence has a long introductory, participial phrase and is not punctuated by a comma before the subject.

Incorrect:

Being in a dilapidated condition and located next to a subway station with a history of vandalism the house was cheap.

Correct:

Being in a dilapidated condition and located next to a subway station with a history of vandalism, the house was cheap.

-note that the only correction for this sentence is off setting the long participial phrase with a comma.

Principle: Place commas after all short transitional words, phrases, and conjunctive adverbs: (see co-commentary #54 and cause and effect starters #55)

Conjunctive adverbs:

However,

Therefore,

Thus,

Hence,

Consequently,

Finally,

Nevertheless,

Essentially,

Ultimately,

Short Transitionals:

Furthermore,

Indeed,

In fact,

Moreover,

In addition,

Meanwhile,

That is,

In other words,

To be specific,

Without a doubt,

As a result,

Incorrect: Some teachers believe that good writers are born not made, however studies have shown that students can improve their writing through competent instruction.

Correct: Some teachers believe that good writers are born not made; however, studies have shown that students can improve their writing through competent instruction.

Commentary: notice that the correct sentence fixes the comma splice with a semi-colon and places the comma after the conjunctive adverb “however.”)