The following notes have been adapted from Bailey, R.F.

1984 A Survival Kit for Writing

The comma (,)

The Comma with and

The simplest use of the comma is in separating a series of items. Sometimes a comma
before and is crucial:

Many of the plays of that time were written by Shakespeare, Marlowe, Kyd,
Webster, Beaumont and Fletcher and Ford.

Because there are no commas before the last two ands you have a pretty good idea that
some of the plays referred to were written by more than one author. But did Beaumont
collaborate with Fletcher? Did Fletcher collaborate with Ford? Or did all three
collaborate with each other? The problem arises because the writer here was trying to
apply the mistaken rule that you never put a comma before and. The problem disappears
with an appropriately placed comma:

Many of the plays of that time were written by Shakespeare, Marlowe, Kyd,
Webster, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Ford.

That final comma separates the last name from the others, and we see that Beaumont and
Fletcher are the collaborators. Such is the value of a well-placed comma.

The Comma with which and who

Once again, your decision to use or omit a comma depends entirely on common sense.
Suppose you wanted to say that the kind of government you most respect is not only the
elected kind but the kind which always tells the truth. You would be wrong to write this:

Wrong
An elected government, which always tells the truth, is the one I most respect.∗

As it stands, you are saying that every elected government always tells the truth. Sad to
say, this is not necessarily so, and it is certainly not what you meant. The gist of that
sentence is that you respect every elected government, and that you do so because they

∗
Bold type identifies control units [Main Unit of Meaning]; light, support units [Support
Unit of Meaning]

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all tell the truth. And that isn’t what you meant, either. That pair of commas creates a
middle support unit [SUM] introduced by which, but there shouldn’t be a middle support
unit at all: ‘An elected government which always tells the truth’ is the subject group, and
the sentence is one complete control unit [MUM]. This what you meant to say:

An elected government which always tells the truth is the one I most respect.

Here’s an easy guide: test to see if you can use ‘that’ instead of ‘which’. If you can, don’t
put a comma before it. If you can’t, use ‘which’ with a comma. This test will show you
the meaning of the sentence, and a good punctuator punctuates according to meaning. He
[sic] knows that a strict grammatical rule of the narrow-minded variety can sometimes
get him [sic] into trouble. Suppose we create out of thin air a law that says we must
always put a comma before who. If so, then one of these two sentences would have to be
wrong:

Members of Alcoholics Anonymous helped the drunk who fell off the bus.
Members of Alcoholics Anonymous helped the drunk, who fell off the bus.

The only difference is the comma. But what a difference! In the first sentence, ‘who fell
off the bus’ is not separated from ‘the drunk’ and is therefore part of the same word
group — in short, it does the job of a single adjective and tells us that the drunk we are
hearing about is that particular drunk who fell of the bus. The whole sentence is a control
unit [MUM], which…can’t be broken up by a single middle stop. In the second sentence,
therefore, that comma must mean that ‘who fell off the bus’ is not part of the control unit
[MUM] but a free-standing, fully fledged support unit [SUM]. If we again use bold type
to identify the control unit, the bizarre meaning of this sentence should be clear:

Members of Alcoholics Anonymous helped the drunk, who fell off the bus.

The comma — seemingly innocent but so often deadly — has turned a statement into a
warning: if you ever get drunk on a bus, don’t let Alcoholics Anonymous get anywhere
near you. You might fall off.

The comma with signposts

[Signpost words include: again, also, admittedly, as a result, because of this, likewise,
after all, nevertheless, notwithstanding, otherwise. See module: Structuring an Essay
for a more extensive list].

There’s an impressive stockpile [including for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so] to choose
from when you want to signpost the twists and turns of your thinking They interrupt the
flow of the sentence in order to change its direction. One such word is however:

His temper is too uncontrollable for him to be a really good politician. However,
he’s the likeliest candidate we’ve got.

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 I agree that you have always contributed well to class discussions, Michelle. Your
performance as an essayist, however, leaves a lot to be desired.

Signpost words bring the sequence of thoughts skidding round in a U-turn and send your
reader off along the path you want him [sic] to follow. …they frequently appear in the
middle of the control unit [MUM], and they almost always demand punctuation on both
sides.

The essence of signpost words [with the exception of for, and, nor but, or, yet, so] is
that they are deliberately interruptive; your reader must always know about it whenever
you push one at him [sic]. This explains the need for punctuation which separates the
signpost word from all the others without breaking everything into fragments — in short,
it explains the need for a comma. Put a comma after a signpost if it is the first word or
phrase in the sentence; put a comma before it if it is the last word in the sentence; and
surround it with a comma pair if it comes elsewhere within the sentence.