Direct Address Comma: Civility in Print

Roxy Hart and Velma Kelly bemoan the loss of civility in their song “Class” from the award-winning Kander & Ebb musical, Chicago. They sing of how “kids these days” use disrespectful language and treat others rudely and impersonally, all the while using crass language themselves to sing the story. The musical irony of ruing the loss of civility in an uncivil tone has tickled audiences for years.

What is this civility of which they sing? And how can punctuation help?

Civility is a way of politely expressing oneself, showing courtesy for others through appropriate behavior, language, and tone. Civility can be found in the “Class” lyrics in the everyday words “please” and “thank you.” It is expressed in actions such as holding a door for someone, giving full attention to the person speaking, or offering your seat to someone who needs it more than you do. Speaking with sincerity at an appropriate volume for the space in which you find yourself expresses civility. 

When writing, we rely not only on our words but our punctuation to express civility. Punctuation? 

Yea, punctuation!

Behold, readers, the direct address comma: civility in print. 

To be Enveloped in an Address

The term address can throw some people off their game. Common usage of address is to indicate where we live: the number and street and town and state. However, as found in Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, another meaning of address is to greet; yet another is to communicate or speak or write directly to someone.

The direct address comma is the sign of civility when speaking to someone or a group of folks in print. The direct address comma honors the name or group name by setting it apart from the other words in the sentence.

Hi, Jan and Marsha.
Hey there, Georgie Girl.
Rise and shine, campers!
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.
Are you ready, team?
We will start, my friends, when everyone is quiet.

Take the names, set them off with commas from the rest of the words, and show civil respect.

Direct Address Commas Missing in Action

In these days of limited-character communication, all too often the direct address comma is omitted. While it is almost excusable practice in the Twitterverse (not for this writer), we definitely should be aware of its necessity in business correspondence and emails.

Many people think that since we do not use a comma between dear and the name to start a friendly letter or an email (e.g., Dear Evan Hansen, Dear Prudence), a direct address comma is not needed in any other greeting of a letter or email. Sound buzzer here.

The word dear in the greeting “Dear Evan Hansen” is an adjective modifying the name of our friend, Evan Hansen. It operates under the same reason you don’t put a comma between Purple and Haze: purple is the adjective modifying haze. However, in a greeting, a comma does go AFTER the name to indicate that the rest of the letter speaks to the dear person.

In emails and letters that start with salutations such as “Good morning, investors” or “Happy Holidays, One and All,” the direct address comma is necessary because good morning and happy holidays are not adjectives describing the investors or the one and all. They are greetings that directly address people. Again, it is a civil way to show respect.

The Direct Comma Wave

Here’s a fun way to think about the direct address comma in a greeting, one I often use with young learners. Think of it as the “waving comma.” If the word makes you want to wave, it’s probably a direct address comma opportunity.

Imagine you see your friend across a crowded…parking lot. You want to greet your friend by saying, “Hey, (insert friend’s name here)!” Would you wave when you say, “Hey”? Sure, especially if the friend is quite a distance from you. The direct address comma is the wave that separates the greeting from the name. 

Try a few. Say a greeting, wave, and insert the name of a friend or a group of people you might talk to. Here are some starter suggestions: 

Howdy, 
Hey,
Good morning,
What’s up,
Greetings,
Wakey, Wakey,

The wave lets you know you need a direct address comma.

Now try the same exercise with the words “Dear Juanito.” Do you normally wave when you say the word dear? No, that would be silly. That’s because dear is not a greeting; it is an adjective describing the lovely person that Juanito is. It doesn’t make sense to wave, so no comma is needed.

This little exercise reinforces why we don’t put a comma between the adjective dear and a person’s name in a greeting in a letter. 

Direct Address: It’s Not Just for Greetings

Remember that other definition of address: to communicate or speak or write directly to someone. When writing a sentence where someone says something to a person or group of people, use the direct address comma to set off the name from the rest of the words. 

Circle the wagons, cowboys.
Please, Sir, I want some more. 
Emma, I feel a draft.
Where are you from, soldier?
Lost your mittens, you naughty kittens?
Keep close, my friends, for danger is all around us.

At the risk of sounding redundant, anytime a person or group of people is spoken to in a sentence, use the civil direct address comma to set it off from the rest of the words.

Have Some Laughs over Direct Address Commas

In their wildly funny book, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why Commas Really Do Make a Difference!, writer Lynne Truss and illustrator Bonnie Timmons provide us with comic examples of how a sentence’s meaning can change with comma placement or eradication. They warn us that “commas save lives” by showing us what would happen if we were to write, “Let’s eat Grandma!” The associated picture is a set of grandchildren drooling over the idea of cannibalizing their grandmother. 

Juxtaposed is the comma infused, “Let’s eat, Grandma!” Its accompanying illustration shows polite children enthused about having a lovely meal with the same grandmother they would have devoured alive had there not been a direct address comma. Civility rules. 

And it teaches us not to eat our elders. Important civility tip.