To Punctuation, With Love
The serial comma suffered a serious blow the other day. The University of Oxford Public Affairs Directorate deemed it unnecessary. This disavowal carried weight because the serial comma (i.e. the comma before the "and" in a series of nouns, such as "dragons, unicorns, and were-llamas") is nicknamed the Oxford comma.
I like that a punctuation mark can have a nickname. I think I shall call semicolons Fred.
Fred is one of my favorite punctuation marks; he holds a special place in my heart... a place right between two independent clauses... :)
But I digress.
Anyway, I am a strong supporter of the serial comma. Think how its absence changes this infamous, yet apocryphal, book dedication: "To my parents, Ayn Rand and God."
Really, though, I love all commas. And all punctuation. Commas, periods, semicolons, dashes, ellipses... they are the silence between the notes. Just as essential to the music as the sounds.
Do you have a favorite punctuation mark? What do you think about Fred?
Labels: Punctuation, Writing
posted by Sarah Beth Durst @ 9:24 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
What?! No, I can't accept it. The Oxford comma is an absolute necessity. I won't change; I won't.
Good thing my lovely Chicago Manual of Style confirms that it should be used (except before an ampersand). Yes, I read the CMS for fun. What about it?
I like all punctuation. One of my former English teachers called punctuation "your gift to the reader" and I absolutely agree.
The serial comma is a necessity, not a luxury! In many, many cases, its habitual absence creates ambiguity.
In fact, the carelessness so many people have about it has caused me to institute a second personal rule; if I have a list of entities, one of which is compound, I take care never to put the compound one last.
I've tweeted out several comments bemoaning the "death of the serial comma" (those #serialkillers!).
The funny thing about Oxford's article: they DO say that in places where ambiguity exists, that the comma should remain. Well, no kidding!
I will continue to use the serial comma since it DOES have a place in reading comprehension (which is the rule and not the exception, like the article makes it seem it is.)
Also, I like Fred, just not in fiction ;)
The serial comma is SO not unnessecary! (Just like double-negatives! :D) Without it, how will anyone know if you're listing two people together or ending the list?
I will never stop using the serial comma.
And I like Fred! Poor misunderstood guy..... in several recent graduate writing courses I took, I often explained Fred to my fellow graduate students who were mistreating him terribly. Sigh....
Q: I've read the CMS for fun too. And once, in middle school, I read the phone book (searching for cool character names). :)
Peni: Its absence totally does create ambiguity. And changes the rhythm of the sentence.
Liza: Alas, poor serial comma! I knew him, a punctuation mark of infinite clarity, of most excellent fancy...
Jakob: Precisely!
Amy: Poor Fred. He suffers so.
I am, perhaps, a little too enamored of commas. And semi-colons. But really, it pretty much just irritates me when people don't use them correctly! Punctuation is there for a reason.
Sarah: I read gravestones for names. I've found some awesome ones, too. But I hadn't thought about using phone books . . . Hmm.
It could be amusing to make lists without serial commas. But I'd rather it be a joke than a rule, you know?
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