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The Street City Church

9 Hania Street
PO Box 6218, Marion Square,
Wellington
Tel +64 4 385 7315
Fax +64 4 385 7309
Email office@thestreet.org.nz

You are here > Home / Styleguide / Commas

Commas

In a series, place commas after each item but not before the final and.

  • Books, pencils and rulers

In a quotation, put commas and periods inside quotation marks unless the quotation is not a phrase or clause. (See QUOTATIONS section.)

  • “We need to recruit the best students we possibly can,” he said.
  • The Registrar’s Office announced that the changes would be “retroactive”.

With a long descriptive title, put commas after the name and job description.

  • Eric Koster, dean of the Faculty of Pure and Applied Science, spoke at the meeting.
  • Patrice Blanchard, minister of immigration, visited Victoria.

With degrees and long descriptive phrases, put a comma between the name, the degree, and the phrase.

  • George Nelson, BA, MA, PhD, won a gold medal.
  • Alice Johnson, PhD, a pioneer in genetic engineering, is a Vic graduate.

When writing a specific date that includes the day of the week, put a comma between the weekday and the month.

  • Friday, 5 August

If abbreviating the weekday, remove the comma.

  • Fri. 5 August

Use a comma before a list beginning e.g. but not before etc. at the end of a list.

  • The walls were painted in a variety of colours, e.g. blue, green, peach, ivory etc.
  • The abbreviated form ibid. is in more general use in bibliographies etc.

Use a comma before a list or clause beginning with i.e.

  • Abbreviations are helpful when taking notes in a lecture, i.e. they can save you time and space.