Punctuation

[Tdol]

Are the commas necessary? Is there a difference?

[RonBee]

The commas are necessary. The first one indicates the way people would say that 99% of the time. I can hardly imagine anybody saying it the other way.

[Tdol]

I use them, but I see the phrase without commas more and more frequently, especially in newspapers, which was why I asked. It's an opinion and not a part of the main sentence, so it should be comma-ed off, IMO.

[RonBee]

The "of course" phrase when used as a parenthetical phrase should always be bracketed by commas, but people get lazy.

:wink:

[Tdol]

It seems to be aphrase in BE that is shedding its commas very rapidly. ;-|

[Will]

I totally agree with you guys that the commas are necessary. Would they also be necessary with "in fact"? I ask because every time I put "in fact" between commas, Word says that it should have a semi-colon at the end.

[RonBee]

In fact, I think "in fact" usually merits a comma. (I don't use the Word grammar function. In fact, I have it turned off, because it's annoying.)

:wink: