A quick Monday thought

[yendi]

Asking a copy editor to omit serial commas is like asking a chef to cook your steak well done.

Comments

[davidlubar.livejournal.com]

Brilliant, insightful, and true.

[featheredfrog.livejournal.com]

In that you get the oldest, smarmiest, nastiest piece of text in the kitchen?

[pierceheart.livejournal.com]

In that you get the oldest, smarmiest, and nastiest piece of text in the kitchen?

There, I fixed it for you.

[felisdemens.livejournal.com]

Perfect.

[ex-gnomicut.livejournal.com]

Several years ago, Kirkus switched to a style manual without serial commas. I still feel like I'm swallowing acid every time I write a book review.

[gingicat]

*grin*

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

"I'd like a well-done steak, an extra-extra dry vodka martini and ketchup."

[yendi]

If there's a hell, that sentence exists in it.

[yendi]

Thanks (for the words and the usage)!

[yendi]

*shudder*

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

My brain, in order to mitigate the horror, insists that the person is drinking a vodka-and-ketchup martini.

Because, terrifyingly, that's the least horrific interpretation.

[ckd]

In a Facebook discussion recently, someone mentioned their Strunk-Fu. My immediate reaction was to say that "Strunk-Fu and the Serial Commas" would be a great name for a band.

[wishiwasnt.livejournal.com]

The serial comma is dumb, useless and serves no purpose.

[featheredfrog.livejournal.com]

that was my point....

Oh, and here's your cindered shoe-sole au poivre...

[rosefox]

PW just started using serial commas after decades without them, and I still smile whenever I see one or put one in.

[rosefox]

"highlights of his global tour include encounters with Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector..."

[wishiwasnt.livejournal.com]

TBH, that sentence parses fine to me. Had you removed the "a" before dildo, it would have been confusing, but grammatically wrong.

I will admit that there are a certain few situations where the Oxford comma is useful, but, in general, I just don't see a need.

yeah ...

[thryn.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's just because I've spent the last decade loyally learning and applying AP rules, but I'm in your camp.

[jerel.livejournal.com]

Back in the days when I worked for Big University, I was the person in charge of publications for the office. When it would go to the desk of my main co-conspirator for review, he'd take out some of my commas. I'd put them back in. And he'd take them out again. Finally, we talked about it. It was because in journalism (his degree program), serial commas were never used, ostensibly to save ink during printing. In literature (my degree program), we love the Oxford comma. We agreed to disagree. And whoever got the finished copy to the boss first won. :)