A Military Writer's Handbook
Punctuation

The Inserting Comma

The inserting comma allows you to add a clarifying detail or a further fact to a sentence. The inserting comma always comes in a set of two. The words inside the pair of commas are not essential to the main point of the sentence and can be omitted without altering the sense of the sentence:

Leaders, both commissioned and non-commissioned officers, are the guardians of military culture.

Inserting commas are used around nonrestrictive clauses positioned in the middle of a sentence— particularly clauses beginning with which and who—that add information that is not essential to the main point of the sentence:

The CF Operations Manual, which contains much valuable information, is mired in lists and formality.

Use inserting commas to set off transitional words and phrases, explanatory material, and parenthetical expressions:

The officers in the upper echelons of command are still predominantly male and, with the exception of language, do not reflect the diversity of Canadian society.

The Cold War, in many respects, artificially divided much of the world into two distinct camps aligned with one or the other Superpower.

Practice Exercises (12 questions)