Thursday, January 5, 2012

Comma Coma

Katie needed something edited so I got out a pen and started reading.  And when I needed to verify a certain grammatical rule I pulled out the old Chicago Manual of Style...and spent the next 30 minutes reading it like a novel.  Because what the real party girls do on a Thursday night is read up on the proper use of a comma in a compound sentence.  (Conclusion:  historically, yes.  But used more so now only if it is needed to clear up ambiguities.)

While we're on the subject, I'd like to go on the record as stating I am for the Oxford, or serial, comma, even though it is going the way of Pluto.  I think it helps in clarification, continuity, and aesthetics.

And now I'm going to go put on a muumuu and find myself a few cats because I'm going to be alone for the rest of my life if I keep talking about commas.

6 comments:

samandholly said...

Sign me up for the proliferation of the Oxford comma. There was an NPR blog post about it a while back. I'll see if I can find it.

samandholly said...

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2011/06/30/137525211/going-going-and-gone-no-the-oxford-comma-is-safe-for-now?ft=1&f=93568166

That was quicker than I expected.

Stephanie said...

I don't mind the oxford comma, but I'm not entirely sold on it. I think there are instances where we don't need superfluous punctuation.

Nerds unite!

Rach said...

I use as many commas as I can. So I am with you on that Oxford comma business. And Rachel, if you didn't keep us informed on the ever-changing rules of punctuation, we would all be at sea, grammatically speaking.

Annette Todd said...

I'm casting my vote for use of the Oxford comma as well. One of my daughters and I had a long coversation about this just a few weeks ago...so, you're not alone in your ponderings along these lines.

Valerie said...

then we'll be alone together.