[projectaon] Re: serial comma
- From: "Jonathan Blake" <blake.jon@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: projectaon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2008 15:53:13 -0700
On Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 2:08 PM, Lawrence Ritchie
<callmeinstead@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I imagine this was hotly debated to start with, but nonetheless:
Not so hotly, no. :)
> I balk when I see your adoption of the serial comma. Talk about
> unconventional! (In the British publishing world -- and Lone Wolf is British
> -- virtually every publisher eschews its use).
>
> It seems your main reason for adopting its use was to avoid ambiguities, but
> this is groundless. Whether you use it or not can create ambiguities (see
> ref below). It is easier to avoid it unless its use prevents an ambiguity
> (the editor's job -- and this is the only way due to the constraints of
> English style). I just can't believe you guys decided to add superfluous
> commas into the original works!
We've done much worse. :)
> Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma
To quote from the wikipedia article:
"The differences of opinion on the use of the serial comma are well
characterized by Lynne Truss in her popularized style guide Eats,
Shoots & Leaves: 'There are people who embrace the Oxford comma, and
people who don't, and I'll just say this, never get between these
people when drink has been taken.' "
;)
I'm not positive about this (blame my aging memory) but I believe
another reason that we adopted the serial/Oxford comma was to enforce
consistency. (Note how it's named for the Oxford University Press.) I
think it was sometimes used in the books and sometimes not. Lone Wolf
went through many editors and I doubt that there was a consistent
house style for these sorts of things. Of course I could be proven
wrong.
--
Jon
~~~~~~
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