Answer: Search Google for lots of online quizzes to test your comma skills.
The best quizzes will explain why your answer is wrong.
This BBC commas quiz is good to start with. Pick your level: beginner, confident or superstar ! Try it — it’s fun!
To improve your score, before doing the quiz, print off and read the accompanying factsheet “when to use commas”
Warning: Nothing in English is logical! The Americans and the English disagree about how to punctuate a list of items!
The English leave out the comma between the second-last item and the last item; they believe “and” is enough to separate the last two items. The Americans, however, do add a comma to the “and“, creating a possibly over-decorated but definitely non-ambiguous “comma and” separation.
The English way: red, white and blue flag
The American way: red, white, and blue flag
Which way is better? Really, it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things! Being Australian, I use both conventions when it suits. I use the uncluttered “and” option for one-word items and the non-ambiguous “, and” option for multi-word items:
and option: red, white and blue flag
, and option: black-eyed peas, well-brushed potatoes, and a generous handful of just-picked beans.
Remember, the job of the comma simply is to help your reader understand your meaning first time.
Here is another excellent quiz. It’s American, so prepare for the rule change! It covers more comma rules, so it’s harder. If you want to get a good score, defintely print off the cheat sheet beforehand and study it!
Now do this more advanced series of quizzes:
Using commas with introductory phrases
Commas with coordinating conjunctions
By now, you must be getting pretty good at commas! Print off and study this definitive cheat sheet, and you’re ready to tackle this rather hard and more realistic quiz. Here, you are given comma-less text, and you have to insert commas where they belong.
Hopefully, by now, you are a Comma Master! If you are, you can feel truly proud because hardly anyone knows how to use commas correctly!
If you’d like more comma practice, here are some more quizzes:
From chompchomp.com (remember to look at the top of the page to see if your answer is correct )
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