comma splicing: what do you think?

[harpsichordcarrier]

now personally I don't mind a little light comma splicing, after all if it is good enough for Graham Greene et al. it is good enough for me.
However, it appears that in the assessment criteria for English, we are to mark down those who comma-splice.
Surely it is a matter of taste, in most instances?

comma followed by and

no no no surely not?

Oxford comma

I'm not a fan personally, but it is 'allowed'.

You can comma and then and.

[winces at own sentence]

seems to be an americanism

You can comma and then and but then some people will object.

[wince]

I used to play "comma tag" with a former boss. He used to rash documents with commas, then I'd proof them and take out all the ones he'd added.

sorry no Ellbell Is it there yet?

We are in another childcare crisis (ds2).

It's American, as well as Oxford (aka the 'Harvard Comma'), Cali.

I think you can too.

Three-letter words starting with "a" include and, ant and art.

(Bero, I owe you an email - am working out dates and leave!)

hunker

Bero - yes, it seems to be there now. Will reply to your email and give you details.

(Am loving fact that a thread about comma-splicing has managed to get 65 posts in next-to-no-time on a Friday night. Where would we pedants be without MN?)

Where would MN be without pedants?

at spelling mistakes in OP

pedants rule

sorry harpsi, i don't mean the op.

Before another lovely pedant corrects me

ooh a lively debate
I think that, at the very least, it is somewhat beside the point to worry about it on talk boards and in emails...
I understand that it is grammatically incorrect but I am not sure that it is wrong in any substantive sense. the sentence will still make sense.
if you were marking a formal piece of writing, then yes no problem. but if the piece was a magazine article or something like that, then I don't see the big deal.

I am of the antisplicing stance. However, I am aware that my use of commas is, at times, extremely pedantic.

oh yes! I do like to overruse commas as well. I like to force people to stop and breathe whilst reading what I have to say