The Oxford Comma

And the similar: Those tools over there are my ex-husbands.

(I read something similar recently, quite possibly on this forum, so I hope its author doesn't mind my pinching it.)

broomstocks Leaving out the much maligned apostrophe can do the same thing. "Those things over there are my husbands".

Missing out commas can give the wrong impression, as in, 'I like cooking my family and my pets.'

I have pasted the sentence below across from a discussion on the WordReference forums, partly because I think it is a good example of why the comma is sometimes needed, but largely because it made me smile:
forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=2672090

The classic example often cited: "This book is dedicated to my parents, Ayn Rand and God."

It is generally true that good punctuation and grammar aids understanding but surely only up to a point. The odd capital letter in the wrong place does not make all that difference for instance.

Of course Orwell was writing in the 50s and he thought Americanisms should be avoided. Ha! He'd have a fit if he was alive today!

Damming with faint praise?

I think good punctuation can improve lucidity, and bad punctuation can make things harder to understand, or make them more open to amibguity. Ambiguity isn't always a bad thing of course; I'm thinking of literary appreciation exercises that depended at least in part on the connotations of the words used.

Oscar Wilde reckoned that once, when struggling to compose a poem, he spent the whole morning deciding to take a comma out and the whole afternoon deciding to put it back in again.

On the other hand, George Orwell thought that grammar and punctuation didn't matter all that much so long as what you wrote was lucid.

The standard of grammar up with which I will not put.

I always knew that a preposition was a bad thing to end a sentence with.

Thought it was a variety/new species of butterfly. Got quite excited just then.

ffinnochio it is as anno says: a comma between two quite separate sentences, where either a full stop or a semi-colon should be. Yes, it matters, because it can change the sense.
I had a fierce English teacher (i.e. teacher of English) at school in Scotland who made us REWRITE an essay if we used 'so' as a conjunction, or the verb 'to get'. I can't do it to this day, 50 years later.

That's been happening to me, too!!

I can't seem to stop using exclamation marks!! At least every other sentence uses one! Is that bad?

And so do I!

I hope you get better soon.

My blood runs cold!

And I end some sentences with 'of.' Rebel!

Yes, I know that feeling, Grandmanorm ! But I do it all the same!

The other grammatical fact that was drummed into to me was never start a sentence with and or but. I still feel "guilty" when I do that!!

At e end of the day is it really that important ??
Just saying , HONEYS !!

Just wondering what an inadequate comma is.

I use them gratuitously! ;;;;;;;;;;;