They’re probably the commas food hall common piece of punctuation in English, which means that they’re often the most misused. This article takes you through the most important comma rules and the most common mistakes in academic writing. A clause is a group of words that contains at least a subject and a verb. Sentences are often made up of several clauses.

It depends on another clause to form a full sentence. When a dependent clause comes at the start of a sentence, it should be followed by a comma. When a dependent clause comes after an independent clause, a comma is often not necessary, especially if it adds information that is essential to the meaning of the independent clause. Commas in compound sentences A compound sentence contains more than one independent clause. In these examples, the parts before and after the conjunction could both stand as full sentences on their own.

Therefore, the comma before so and the comma before and are required. Avoid the comma splice Two independent clauses should never be joined by a comma alone. Model 1 was selected, it returns more accurate results. The project ran over the deadline, data processing was extensive. He did not take the easy way out, he is a man of principle. In each of the examples above, the two parts of the sentence separated by the comma could stand as full sentences by themselves. This means they are independent clauses.

The table below shows how each approach produces slightly different results. Model 1 was selected: it returns more accurate results. Model 1 was selected as it returns more accurate results. The project ran over the deadline. The project ran over the deadline because data processing was extensive.

He did not take the easy way out. He is a man of principle. He did not take the easy way out, because he is a man of principle. Sometimes the extra information added by a dependent clause is essential to the meaning of the main clause.