Writing911 visitor Rebecca Jamison of New York City recently sent us one of her pet peeves. "There should be no comma between a month and the year when no day is indicated. That really gets me when I see it in the newspaper," she wrote.

She's right. "He was born in May, 1965" is incorrect. It should read, "He was born in May 1965." If you put the day into the sentence, a comma would be needed. "He was born on May 5, 1965."

We often see commas in two other places where they don't belong: between a title and a name and between the subject and the verb.

Between a Title and a Name

"President and CEO, Jane Smith announced the plan" is incorrect because her title is like any other adjective and you don't put commas between adjectives and nouns.

If you wanted to emphasize the title rather than her name, you could write and punctuate the sentence this way: "The president and CEO, Jane Smith, announced the plan." Simply starting the sentence with 'The' changes its structure entirely, because her name becomes parenthetical to her title.

You would also use commas around the title if you placed it after her name. "Jane Smith, president and CEO, announced the plan."

Between the Subject and Verb

Commas should never split the subject of the sentence from its verb.

"My high school teacher, loves sports and science."

"Even before he finished his homework, Mark and his friends, wanted to play soccer."

In both of these sentences, an errant comma splits the subject from its verb. There should be no comma after 'teacher' or after 'friends.'

Watch out for parenthetical comma pairs, which are OK. They may appear to be splitting up a subject and a verb, when they are really just surrounding a parenthetical phrase.

This sentence is fine:
"The desk, shining with polish, sold for $1,000."

This sentence is wrong:
"The shiny desk, sold for $1,000."

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