(1) What sort of fool, imbecile, or moron does the author take me for? Specifically, she didn’t understand why anyone would add a comma after the penultimate item in a list, as in (1) she found it to be greatly preferable to omit it, as in (2).
But for me, it was a bit worrisome - especially as I had recently been enjoying a resurgence of interest in syntactic research.Īnd then I was in a conversation with my mother in which she remarked on some people’s usage of a commas in a list.
In fact, for many prescriptivists, this is something I wish they’d encounter. I know that’s not something that many people would lament, this inability of grammar to raise one’s hackles. But admittedly, it was also that my interest in the intricacies of grammar were flagging a bit. I apologize for the intermittent posting the past month what with the end of summer filling me with the spirit to jam in a bunch of relaxation and the end of summer filling me with a need to jam in a bunch of work that I didn’t do earlier, I’ve had precious little time to write about grammar. Curtis Honeycutt is a nationally award-winning syndicated humor writer. I believe in a world in which vampires and werewolves can – and do – get along. I know, I know – you probably think this is a not-so-subtle way of addressing the age-old rivalry between vampires and werewolves. I’m not naive enough to assume I will be able to change anyone’s mind a polarizing topic such as this I merely wanted to illustrate how two opposing factions can (theoretically) peacefully coexist. Hopefully, this nuanced take on the comma controversy provides a diacritical middle ground for the two feuding punctuation parties. This sentence doesn’t need a comma after “Milky Ways” because it doesn’t provide further clarity in the sentence’s meaning, nor does it lead to misinterpretation. According to AP, “If a comma doesn’t help make clear what is being said, don’t use it.” I love secretly eating my child’s Skittles, Milky Ways and Butterfingers once he’s asleep. Pretend they’re shotgun shells and you’re trying to survive in a zombie apocalypse. My general rule is: use commas sparingly. I’m not sure if this will come as a trick or a treat to you, but the AP Stylebook actually makes clear that it’s perfectly appropriate to use an Oxford comma when doing so helps to avoid confusion or misinterpretation.
Does hopefully need a comma series#
the serial, series or Harvard comma) is at odds with the AP Stylebook. That was intended to read as a list of three things – not a list of one thing followed by examples (although I’ve heard squirrel bacon is excellent)! Most people think the Oxford comma (a.k.a. I could say: I like eating, children and small animals. Suppose I wanted to list a few (three, to be precise) of my favorite things. In today’s article, I’m going to settle the Oxford comma debate once and for all. Did you know commas can save innocent lives? I wanted to avoid controversial subjects like killing in this column, but here we are discussing the only two certainties in life: death and punctuation.
On days like this, kids in costumes aren’t the only spooky things in the neighborhood.
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