Grammar Wednesday: COMMA–direct salutation

March 6, 2013
Written by adrianjsmith

Direct salutations occur mainly in dialogue when one character is calling another by a specific name. Now, this can be the name of the character or a nickname. Either way, it is considered a direct salutation. I will also tag on identifying characters in this. The commas go on either side of the name. When the name is at the beginning or the end of a sentence, there is only one comma necessary either after or before the name–respectably.

EXAMPLES: (Direct Salutation)
1. “Hello there, Bob.”
2. “Hey, Bill.”
3. “Captain, the report is on your desk.”

EXAMPLES: (Identifying Characters)
1. Sharon, the fifth grade teacher, had recess duty for the rest of the week.
2. The girl who loves to read, Katherine, gets through a book a week.

now for practice.

EXAMPLES:

1. “Katherine you need to mail me my yarn!”

RESOLUTION

“Katherine, you need to mail me my yarn!”

2. The cable guy Larry, made a funny joke when he was fixing the cable box.

RESOLUTION

The cable guy, Larry, made a funny joke when he was fixing the cable box.

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