The Canadian Style
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- - Close Punctuation
- Introduction to Punctuation
- Spacing
- The Period, Main purpose
- Imperatives, exclamations and indirect questions
- Ellipsis points
- Leaders
- Other uses
- Periods properly omitted
- The Question Mark, Main purpose
- Requests, indirect questions and other uses
- The Exclamation Mark, Main purpose
- The Exclamation Mark, Miscellaneous
- The Comma, General
- Restrictive/non-restrictive
- The Comma, Co-ordinate elements
- Clarity and emphasis
- Omitted words
- Quotations, etc.
- Names and titles
- Dates, geographical names and addresses
- Commas properly omitted
- The Semicolon, Between independent clauses
- The Semicolon, Co-ordinate elements
- Misuse and overuse
- The Colon, Between independent clauses
- Annunciatory function
- The Colon, Miscellaneous
- Misuse
- Parentheses, General
- Clarification
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- Square Brackets, General
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- Use
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- The Em Dash, General
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- Summarizing
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- The En Dash, Numerals
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7.13 The Comma, General
The comma is the most frequently misused punctuation mark, and many of the rules governing its use are vague and riddled with exceptions. The writer must frequently rely on personal judgment and should be guided by considerations of clarity more than by any particular set of rules.
Note that, as a general rule, commas interrupt the flow of a sentence and should therefore not be used where they do not contribute to clarity. A sentence requiring a large number of commas for clarity is probably a poorly constructed one in need of rephrasing. Yet the comma is also the mark most often incorrectly omitted.
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