The Serial comma is good, right, and proper

serpentdove

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:IA:, :sozo2:, and :Clete:

I had the finest English teacher on the planet. She edited English books! She would disagree with you.

Our first lesson was to learn to spell her name properly: Mrs. Kwiatkowski.

We filled the entire blackboard with diagrammed sentences. :jump:
 

Town Heretic

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I had the finest English teacher on the planet. She edited English books! She would disagree with you.

Our first lesson was to learn to spell her name properly: Mrs. Kwiatkowski.

We filled the entire blackboard with diagrammed sentences. :jump:
You're off topic: The Serial comma is good, right, and proper

Now, the first thing I notice is he spelled out comma, instead of adding it, which is confusing.

:plain:
 

GFR7

New member
Rex's thread spurred me to start a thread in a similar vein.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma

Is it just me or is the serial/oxford comma used less and less these days? Does it depend on the type of writing being done? Seeing it left off is becoming quite the pet peeve of mine. :mmph: Excluding it doesn't always change the meaning of the sentence or make it ambiguous, but I still think it should always be used.


:sibbie: Use the Oxford comma!
I noticed this back in the '90s: Using many commas, which once was the mark of highbrow and proper writing, became passe, and the run-on sentence began to look more professional:

Old way: They are, if anything, beginning to move in the opposite direction, likely due to an increased understanding of, and interest in, the new purview.

New: They are if anything beginning to move in the opposite direction likely due to an increased understanding of - and interest in - the new purview.
 

serpentdove

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You use a comma if the phrase could not stand on its own.

For example:

If I didn't know any better, I'd say that TH was trying to annoy me with that last post.
 

Evoken

New member
Serial-comma-comic-001.jpg
 

serpentdove

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[From Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, Chapter 2, Lesson 2]

"In a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction, use a comma after each term except the last

Thus write,
•red, white, and blue
•honest, energetic, but headstrong
•He opened the letter, read it and made a note of its contents."
 
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