By the way - comma

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Nightmare85

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Jul 17, 2009
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German
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Hello :)
I would like to know if I should use all commas:
By the way, I read the exact same thing yesterday.
I have already heard about his choice, which is, by the way, very sad.
You misspelled my name, by the way.


I believe that I should definitely use commas for the 2nd sentence.
What about sentence 1 and 3?

Cheers!
 

TP09

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Joined
Apr 21, 2010
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Student or Learner
Hello :)
I would like to know if I should use all commas:
By the way, I read the exact same thing yesterday.
I have already heard about his choice, which is, by the way, very sad.
You misspelled my name, by the way.


I believe that I should definitely use commas for the 2nd sentence.
What about sentence 1 and 3?

Cheers!

**Not a teacher**

You are correct, commas should be used in all three sentences.
 

sarat_106

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Mar 19, 2008
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English Teacher
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Oriya
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India
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India
Hello :)
I would like to know if I should use all commas:
By the way, I read the exact same thing yesterday.
I have already heard about his choice, which is by the way, very sad.
You misspelled my name, by the way.

I believe that I should definitely use commas for the 2nd sentence.
What about sentence 1 and 3?

Cheers!
I do not think, you need a comma before ‘by the way’ in the second sentence as because it is a phrase functioning as adverb. Let us replace ‘by the way’ by another adverb ‘incidentally’ which means the same, see whether it sounds natural.
I have already heard about his choice, which is incidentally, very sad.
Please remember, where there is a pause in a sentence and an additional phrase(here it is ‘very sad’) is added, a comma precedes that insertion and is placed to complete it. As a practice, speak it.aloud and you will know if the sentence needs that pause.
 
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Raymott

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Jun 29, 2008
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Australia
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Australia
Yes, you need them all.

You also need one here:
I have already heard about his choice, which is, incidentally, very sad.
If you don't put a comma before 'incidentally', why would you put one after it? If you removed 'incidentally', you'd have:
"... which is, very sad." which isn't right.

Speaking sentences aloud won't help with mandatory commas. This is only good for optional commas.
 
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