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Punctuation Pedants
BillieTheBot
Posts: 8,721 Bot
in General Chat
I need your help, you anally retentive weirdos.
I was flicking through the Strunk & White Elements of Style book and I came across the section on the serial comma.
Now the book suggests that the comma should be used after every term except the last, their example being:
"Red, white, and blue".
Whereas, I was taught that the correct usage would be:
"Red, white and blue".
The 'and' creating the natural breathing gap, making the comma redundant.
So who's right?
I was flicking through the Strunk & White Elements of Style book and I came across the section on the serial comma.
Now the book suggests that the comma should be used after every term except the last, their example being:
"Red, white, and blue".
Whereas, I was taught that the correct usage would be:
"Red, white and blue".
The 'and' creating the natural breathing gap, making the comma redundant.
So who's right?
Beep boop. I'm a bot.
0
Comments
My punctuation is horrible eitherwise, because in german, you make, a comma. or period,all, the. time, and. it looks, like, and mine.field-of dashes.dots.commas, etc. whereas.in-the_english language. you scarcly.use punctuaions`
probably not a credible post but that's what I think. It looks wrong with a comma before the 'and'. :razz:
Red, white, and blue.
Unless guidelines for the professional or academic institution for which you're writing states otherwise...
I tend not to use the comma before and.
..and what??
red, white and blue not red, white, and blue
the and means there is no need for a comma because the comma replaces the and, bloody hell that sounds confusing lol
Just to add, Quirk et al (1985) carried out statisical testing of commas between 'and' and 'but' in coordinate clauses and found that they were 'dealing with tendencies [of comma use] which, while clear enough, are by no means rules.... (I)t is probable that the general truth that punctuation conforms to grammatical rather than rhetorical considerations is in fact overridden."
So, it looks like, according to one of the most established grammarians of English, that you can use either way.
'This item comes in a variety of colours; you can choose from red, red and white, and green.' or 'This morning I went shopping at Boots, Sainsbury's, and Marks and Spencer.'
Hope that helps.
It doesn't really matter as everywhere seems to adapt the styles; I was just intrigued as to the proper usage.
That really doesn't suprise me, given that you're thesite's version of woody wood pecker :razz:
Heh-heh-heh-HEH-heh!
I'm guessing grammar? And please, don't tell me you're excited about it. Grammar makes me sad....
same here
It's because I am always right, no matter how someone is taught, and I just generally "feel" that is the right way.
I remember reading that if you're reeling of a list of items, then a comma is proper, but not so with names.
i.e. I went with Adam, Bill and Chris
i.e He was silly, insane, and comical
I remember trying to learn about the apostrophe. Now that can be a tricky beast!
"The princesses' hand bag" - a number of princesses and their jointly owned handbag
"The princess's hand bag" - one princess and her handbag
Edit: Biblical names are treated completely differently to anything else when using apostrophes!