I would rather eat steak than oysters. She would rather run than walk. They would rather play games than do homework.
A comma may go before or after, or not be there at all. The placement of commas is entirely a matter of sentence structure. There is no word in English that requires a comma.
He is both a bully and a bruit who would rather punch you in the face than engage in a civil conversation.
The teacher asked the class for a vocal answer rather than head nods and silence.
There are quite a few sentences you can make with a pair of synonyms. Rather than use the same word repeatedly in a sentence or paragraphs.
Scientists ascribe the flu out-break to a previously unknown virus.
When choosing fruit, I prefer an orange rather than a banana.
Rather than showing me that he cares, all he has shown is indifference.
His issues lye more with attention rather than immaturity.
you should buy this car rather than that one.
Gentleman on his early career move to join the Liberal Democrats rather than the Labor party.
Dipolmacy isn't a word. Diplomacy is. "The president tried to resolve the international conflict through diplomacy rather than violence."
His face was rather angular in shape.
Augustus made changes that were designed to reduce the Praetor to being an imperial administrator rather than a magistrate.
The trainee resigned after a week rather than put up with the carping complaints of the sales manager.
the psychics readings were rather portentous in nature
I thought the right word was "impredictable" but rather it was "unpredictable".
There is a rather large piece of furniture in the road.