If you are a follower of the Oxford/serial/Harvard comma wars and a journalist, you may be shaking your fist at the comma before the “and” in that second example. That’s this magazine’s style, so ...

Use commas after introductory words. Example: Finally, I went to the beach. It’s common to use adverbs to start a sentence.

For example, immediately after the rule that says to set off introductory phrases with commas, AP says “The comma may be omitted after short introductory phrases if no ambiguity would result.” ...

The comma shows that they are closely connected to the main part of the sentence. If the clauses make sense on their own, you don’t need to use a comma. For example: Albert was excited about eating.

Only use a comma to separate a dependent clause at the end of a sentence for added emphasis, usually when negation occurs. 3. Use commas to offset appositives from the rest of the sentence.

It’s an example of a comma situation that confounds many people yet is surprisingly easy to handle. Did you notice that, in our sentence, there are commas between some adjectives but not others?

web scrawl; nation; world; states. opinions; cities ...

When do you use the Oxford comma? The Oxford comma should be included before the final "and" in lists. For example, a list of three drinks might be punctuated either as "beer, wine, and whisky ...