Hello everyone: When conjoining two independent clauses, the proper punctuation is to put a comma in between the end of the first clause and the conjunction. For example: "I will go to the store, and Mary will eat a biscuit." I learned to identify an independent clause as a clause tha can stand on its own as a sentence. However, I am running into a problem when I use this with "IF/THEN" statements. For example, which one is correct: "If we win the lottery, then I will go to the store and Mary will eat a biscuit." or "If we win the lottery, then I will go to the store, and Mary will eat a biscuit." Thanks for the help. BP Ramone
the middle one is the only one i would use... in today's writing/publishing world, minimal use of commas is more the 'rule' than maximal, despite all the old rules... comma use in fiction is thus more of an optional style issue now, than rules 'n regs...
