I have an English degree. I have been more and more concerned that the comma seems to be disappearing from written communication. Basically, unless writers fear being misread by the omission of a comma, there are few included in people’s text. As I read and proofread others’ work, I see fewer and fewer commas where I was taught they should be. So I grab my red pen and caret them in where they should be. At times, I have had to put so many in that I have thought I was going mental and remembering rules that didn’t exist. Worst of all are legal documents. Lawyers do so much orally that you can count the commas in an average pleading on two hands.

The good news is that I am not going crazy. Robert J. Samuelson of Newsweek has noticed the same trend:

I have always liked commas, but I seem to be in a shrinking minority. The comma is in retreat, though it is not yet extinct. In text messages and e-mails, commas appear infrequently, and then often by accident (someone hits the wrong key). Even on the printed page, commas are dwindling. Many standard uses from my childhood (after, for example, an introductory prepositional phrase) have become optional or, worse, have been ditched.

Samuelson then goes on to explain his belief that we are eschewing commas as a time-saving maneuver. I beg to differ.

I believe we have abandoned the comma because it’s just easier to not have to remember the rules. There is a vast, uneducated conspiracy to simply quit using commas and alienate those of us who still do. As with most of life, there seems to be a prevalent idea that if enough people ignore the rule the rule ceases to exist. And I specifically blame intellectually lazy college professors for this. I once had a professor at OSU tell us that the apostrophe was going the way of the dodo. If professors teach that, it will eventually happen.

Good punctuation is the seasoning of good prose. Learn the rules. Remember them. Apply them. Your work will be enhanced; your readers edified. Go forth and punctuate!