Using the rules you just learned about comma usage, rewrite the passage, placing commas where necessary. It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town or travel in the country when they see the streets the roads and cabin doors crowded with beggars of the female sex followed by three four or six children all in rags and importuning every passenger for an alms. These mothers instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants who as they grow up either turn thieves for want of work or leave their dear native country to fight for the Pretender in Spain or sell themselves to the Barbadoes. Little, Brown and Company, Inc., 1984. If you can manage to place all the necessary commas in this passage, and avoid any unnecessary ones, you know everything you'll ever need to know about comma usage.
All writers use some form of process or formula for writing.
This does not mean that simply following a recipe will guarantee great writing, but using a formula makes it easier to complete a writing project and keep it on topic. Okay, you have to write something, and you want to make it the best something that you can. Let's suppose that you're going to write a letter to your Aunt Lucy, whom you haven't seen in five years. While you're looking for that last letter, you remember that you want to ask Aunt Lucy about your cousins. When you find the letter, you go back to your notes and jot down the questions that you want to ask.