Back in school, I’ve been chastised by professors for being too generous with the use of commas. I’ve tempered it to some degree, but continue to find the activity a bit challenging.
My writing software catches most of my errant comma use. However, upon manual proofing, I usually find a couple or so that it manages to miss. Even after that, a good editor can still spot several incorrect uses in some of my copy.
In truth, deciding the time and place to use a comma is not always intuitive. Sure, it’s easy enough when you’re putting together lists and other itemized things. Begin writing compound and complex sentences, however, and you’ll begin to realize the dilemma.
Here, then, is the simple two-point guide to using commas in strung-together sentences, so that you too may put out properly-punctuated prose.
In compound and complex sentences, commas are always placed right after the conjunction, never before.
If you are not connecting two complete sentences, they should not be separated with a comma.
Is it always that simple? Not really. In many cases, especially nowadays, editors prefer to eliminate commas if the sentence makes sense without it. This is true even when connecting two complete sentences. Simply put, the general perception is that commas impede readability. Basically, too much punctuation can leave the reader more confused than enlightened. As such, a third guideline should be to “limit commas when they are necessary for the sentence to make perfect sense.”
