Originally posted on Expert Book Publishing Blog:

Over the years, I’ve seen manuscripts and college assignments riddled with commas and I’ve seen them without even the basic commas. When I asked one student what rules he used for inserting commas in his writing, he said, “I put a comma everywhere I pause to take a breath when reading.”

What? Is that in an English textbook somewhere?

It is just a bad to have too many commas as it is to have too few, so check your own writing against these basic comma rules.

Use a comma after an introductory clause. (Example: If you are looking for a job, try the Internet.)
Use a comma before the conjunction that joins two independent clauses (independent clauses could stand alone as two sentences without the conjunction joining them). (Example:  Job candidates should match their skills to the position, and they should know something about the target company.)
Use a comma…

View original 118 more words