ELON, North Carolina — My favorite bumper sticker I’ve never seen: Commas matter. So I’ve always thought, and do still believe with the passion of one whose knuckles were rapped for grammatical errors ...

Before I started teaching copy-editing courses, I assumed that one of the nice things about being a teacher would be sharing hard-earned expertise with wide-eyed students awed by my vast knowledge.

Sign up for the daily CJR newsletter. Recently, in a column about other things, we asked whether you needed a comma in the phrase “the large blue box.” The answer ...