Do you Also feel that just because you've written an "and"..that should be no reason to disqualify you from..?

Question

preceding or following it with a comma?

ie: if i wanted to write the sentence

he took the paper, And whats more...he didnt pay me for it.

where does the prohibition on preceding an and with a comma come from, and is it one of those anally retentive grammar rules that needs doing away with.

i want to feel free to put a comma WHERE I intend the pause to be understood to occur, not where some outdated rule says it SHOULD be.

Answer 1

i think it's because there should be a semi-colon there instead of a comma: he took the paper; and what's more, he didn't pay me for it.

Answer 2

'and' is a conjunction, the whole point of using 'and' is to avoid commas or full stops (periods). But in American grammar you are supposed to use a comma preceding 'and' when you are listing something - for example: I had some pasta, salad, and a roll for dinner tonight. The same is not the case in British grammar.

Answer 3

There`s no need for a comma preceding a conjunction and you only capitalise a word after a full stop or if it`s a proper noun. See how neat my sentence is and it`s not all bunged up  with unnecessary punctuation? Who says it`s an outdated rule?

Answer 4

I don't see any problem with punctuating with a comma to make a pause clear. You can even start a sentence with "And".

In your example, you can't spell "And" with a capital "A" after a comma though.