Commas, Punctuation, and Capitalization

Commas are used to indicate a pause between parts of a sentence, to separate items in a list, to set off introductory elements, and to clarify meaning.

A comma should be used before 'and' in a list when it is part of a series of three or more items (Oxford comma), but it is optional depending on style.

'There' refers to a place, 'their' is a possessive pronoun, and 'they're' is a contraction for 'they are'.

A compound sentence should be punctuated with a comma before the coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) that connects the two independent clauses.

A direct address should be set off by commas. For example: 'Let's eat, Grandma!'.

Proper nouns, which name specific people, places, or organizations, should always be capitalized.

The first word of a sentence should always be capitalized.

Apostrophes are used in contractions to indicate omitted letters, such as in 'don't' (do not) or 'it's' (it is).

Quotes should be enclosed in quotation marks, and punctuation should be placed inside the quotation marks if it is part of the quoted material.

Semicolons are used to connect closely related independent clauses or to separate items in a complex list.