English: commas with coordinating conjunctions, part0

Tutoring English, the comma is often a source of questions. The tutor mentions a case for it.

I mention coordinating conjunctions in my post from June 30. During my research, another point about them came up.

I will often use a coordinating conjunction to join two short standalone sentences into a compound sentence, such as

Bill shouldn’t hesitate or he’ll miss the ferry.

However, Harbrace Handbook For Canadians suggests that one should put a comma before the coordinating conjunction in such a case:

Bill shouldn’t hesitate, or he’ll miss the ferry.

I’ve seen that comma as optional; leaving it out makes the sentence crisper, in my opinion.

Source:

Hodges, J.C., Horner, W.B., Webb, S.S., Miller, R.K., Stubbs, A. (2003). Harbrace Handbook For Canadians. Nelson Education Ltd.