A little bit of info on commas and apostrophes.

This week’s chapter on punctuation was quite interesting.  Many people struggle with proper punctuation. The effect they have on sentences can be very profound. I’m going to write about two of the rules that I've always had issues with: the comma and the apostrophe.

The chapter on commas had two concepts that I think are important to remember: the non-restrictive and restrictive clauses. I often wondered when someone should use commas in between sentence elements. It made a lot more sense after reading this section. If a specific element could be removed without changing the overall meaning, then you should use a comma because it’s not essential to the sentence. If removing the element changes the idea the sentence is trying to convey, then it’s essential and should not have a comma. This is very important to remember when structuring your sentences.

Another concept I enjoyed reading about was the apostrophe; specifically the usage depending on the word in terms of possessives. One thing to remember when it’s a common noun and it ends with an s, is to add ‘s as long as the next word doesn’t begin with an s. I knew the rule regarding proper nouns, but not the one regarding common nouns. 

In above example, the sentence reads: “One moment that captured Sanders’s progressivism came back in 1995.” Sanders is a proper noun, therefore according to the apostrophe rule regarding singular proper nouns that end in s, you should only add an apostrophe.