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I need to provide a short explanation of why it's important to use commas correctly. Ironically, I'm worried that my punctuation in this explanation is incorrect! Please help!

"Commas are tricky little critters. But when correctly placed, they will improve the clarity of your writing. Commas let you play with sentence length, allowing you to build in clauses, pauses and emphasis without risk of ambiguity. If there’s confusion, a comma will probably help! Find comma rules in a style manual or online guide.

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Well, I'm a proponent of the Oxford Comma, so you should place one after "pauses," and you could optionally place one before "without."

I would consider this because it separates the list ("clauses, pauses, and emphasis") from the rest of the sentence. Some might consider this overkill,

"Commas are tricky little critters. But when correctly placed, they will improve the clarity of your writing. Commas let you play with sentence length, allowing you to build in clauses, pauses, and emphasis(,) without risk of ambiguity. If there’s confusion, a comma will probably help! Find comma rules in a style manual or online guide."

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  • @Croppers Don't forget to upvote and accpet it if it helped you out!
    – Azor Ahai -him-
    Commented Jun 7, 2016 at 16:38

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