M-W Learner’s
We were bored with the movie, so we left.
I don't want to go, so I won't.
There are no more chairs available, so you'll have to stand.OALD
It was still painful so I went to see a doctor.
There are commas in M-W Learner’s examples before so; in OALD isn't. Is it a different way to write in two countries, or either way do you, American and British, can write?
The original purpose of punctuation conventions in manuscripts was to show readers where naturally occurring syntactic pauses appeared. These marks acted as clause-divisions and phrase demarcations. Punctuation marks should continue to serve the same purpose.
Since there is a naturally occurring syntactic pause after the word "painful" in the following statement, a comma would be appropriate there:
It was still painful, so I went to see a doctor.
On the other hand, there would be hardly any pause after the word "doctor" in this statement, so no comma is needed there:
I went to see a doctor because it was still painful.
I am not a native speaker but I think there's no need of a comma in the OALD example because keeping pause there actually takes off the seriousness of seeing a doctor! If I'm not wrong, comma actually introduces a little pause.
Said that,
We were bored with the movie.........so we left ~ okay
I don't want to go.......so I won't ~ okay
There are no more chairs available......so you'll have to stand ~ okay, as well!
But then...
It was still painful.......so I went to see a doctor -does not introduce the 'impact'
over...
It was still painful so I went to see a doctor.
Something like...
I did not find my baby in the crib so I shouted...
