SEVERAL months ago I w as surprised to see Arnold Zwicky, a linguist, use a comma splice. A few commenters took me to task for being over-picky. The question came up again in the comments several days ...

Commas are used to separate words in a list and clauses in a sentence. Here are some examples of commas in lists: Her bag contained climbing shoes, rope, karabiners, chalk and a map. He had walked ...