The comma is not required:
1. Before or after conjunctions such as and, or, nor, but, and yet when employed to {8} connect two words belonging to the same part of speech and in the same construction: e.g., Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote. When words are not in pairs, the comma must be used: e.g., Sink, die, or perish, I give my hand and my heart to this vote.
2. Before or after conjunctions when they are employed to connect two expressions in the same construction used as if belonging to the same part of speech: e.g., The new system of management guarantees accuracy in getting orders under way and promptness in completing them.
3. Before the conjunction too when placed at the end of a sentence: e.g., I hope that you will come too.
4. Where there are two or more words or phrases having a conjunction between each two: e.g., Lest he should be tempted and yield and thus be false.
5. After an adjective that describes or limits another adjective together with the noun following: e.g., He had on a pair of torn gray corduroy breeches.
6. When a pronoun is used with a noun for emphasis: e.g., Lafcadio Hearn himself could not have described the scene more vividly.
THE SEMICOLON
The semicolon is used to indicate a pause or a degree of separation next greater than {9} the comma. Caxton was the first to introduce into English printing the Roman points of punctuation as used in Italy. The comma replaced the unwieldly |, and the colon was an added refinement, but for some unexplained reason he steadfastly opposed the introduction of the semicolon. This mark should always be placed outside the quotation-marks unless forming a part of the quotation itself.