QOTD 4/24/2026

The sentence below is absolutely inundated(fancy way to say flooded) with commas. Let’s see what you currently know about commas. More particularly, let’s see what things you know about commas that are particular to tests like the SAT.

Known for her novel “Americanah”, writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who grew up in Nigeria, is also the author of “Half of a Yellow Sun”, “Purple Hibiscus”, and the more recently released “Dream Count”, a book that has been categorized by some as a psychological romance.

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The least interesting commas(at least to us, as the test takers that WE🤗 are) are the two that are part of the list within the middle of the sentence.

• i) In all likelihood, you already are comfortable with such commas.
• ii) More importantly, the test writers do not appear to be interested in testing us on such commas.

Maybe the most interesting commas(at least to most of us) are the commas that make the appositive within the sentence, which is the phrase “is also the author of “Half of a Yellow Sun”, “Purple Hibiscus”, and the more recently released “Dream Count”.

Depending on how fluent your appositive knowledge is, you might be most intrigued by the first comma, one that we could acknowledge sets up the IDP that is within this sentence.

If you’re not familiar yet with the thing we call an IDP, you could also see the first comma as being there because the sentence starts with a description. This idea would dovetail(we find this word to be underused🕊️) nicely with then acknowledging that the final comma is there because the sentence ends with a description.

If you’re currently counting on being to “hear” when there is a pause, for the express purposes of what we are collaborating to achieve together, it is likely going to be a part of your journey to go beyond this legitimate instinct. Oh, and if you’re somehow reading this, and you haven’t done any of our setLists yet, you should check them out. If there isn’t already one to further flex your mastery of commas, it’s coming. Feel free to give us a nudge.🐒

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