Friday 3 February 2012

Relatively Speaking…

leats eat grandma

Well, it amused me.

Bob and I are currently having an ongoing debate about the merits of the Serial Comma [aka the Oxford Comma, or Harvard Comma] If you want to know about that, look here.

Commas

It is the comma before the ‘and’ at the end of a list.

I use a pen, a pencil, and a typewriter.

I think [but no doubt Liz, who I regard as the family expert on all matters of punctuation, will put me straight here] that it only needs to be used when the sentence is ambiguous without it.

He dedicated the book to his two ex-wives, John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

He dedicated the book to his two ex-wives, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney.

As a child, it concerned me to hear people reading the Christmas story, and saying that the shepherds hurried off…

and found Mary, Joseph and the babe lying in a manger

…a very crowded manger!

OxfordComma,,

15 comments:

  1. You know how much I love such things! I always use it in my own writing, but a lot of authors don't - the general rule is to leave authorial punctuation alone unless it is plain wrong. Last year I edited one book where the author did not use commas at all, but did write very long sentences, and another where the author used semicolons where commas would have been correct, and full stops instead of semicolons - lots of verbless clauses masquerading as sentences.

    Sorry - I just had to get that off my chest!!

    Pomona x

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    1. Ha! I just knew YOU would comment, Pomona. Your writing is always a pleasure to read, not just for its content, but also for the impeccable use of English.

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  2. I am usually a stickler for punctuation but after my illness I have forgotten a lot of the rules of punctuation and I now see lots of errors on my blog. I also "forgot" how to knit and read so I concentrated on re-learning these so punctuation was ignored! When I wrote my books I was extra careful and it took an age to self edit but it was worth it as my editor found no mistakes. I was thrilled. Oh and don't get me started on grammar! I spoke with a lovely lady the other day whose grammar was quite poor "we was" etc and then she told me that she teaches as a job! Oh and then spelling - one of my son's secondary teachers used to ask him how to spell some words! (Am not having a go at teachers - as I used to be one!!)
    Great post.
    L.x.

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  3. I am a great believer in the Oxford comma and always use it. Some sentences are ambiguous without it and I don't like the idea of 'sometimes' using it. That said my grammar is not the best, esp when it comes to commas vs semi-colons and colons.

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  4. Oh dear, the French use commas differently to the English! Therefore I find I'm battling good education in the wrong language, as well as poor education in our own, when I teach my bilingual pupils about commas! And now I'm looking back over what I've typed in a slightly paranoid fashion... Personally, commas where a semi colon should be used are my real bugbear. And now, Ang, what on earth is the origin of the word 'bugbear'?

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    1. What an erudite lot you all are. Floss, 'bugbear' is said to derive from Old English and/or possibly Welsh. It was a goblin said to eat naughty children and thought to be in bear-like form. This creature also appears in other European folklore. I do not know whether the French have a version of him!

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  5. I knew I could rely on you, Ang! I rather like the sound of this bugbear - is that wrong of me? It seems a bit non-PC...

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  6. I didn't know it, but I use the Oxford comma. That's how I was taught in school many, many, many moons ago so I'll go on with it. Let's not eat Grandma!

    Jody

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  7. Ha ha! We try to emphasize the importance and the life saving quality of punctuation, too!

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  8. How funny is this; I had to look up the meaning of erudite!! After the stroke my vocab is very limited. So I guess we can count me out of your erudite group - LOL!!!!
    L.x.

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  9. Hmm, this is an interesting one, isn't it? I had to look up just what an Oxford comma was, as I have never heard of it. I was always taught, both at school and at secretarial college, never to use a comma before the word and, so I never have. I think that if you feel that you need to use one, as in say the case of the ex-wives, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, then the wording is incorrect and it should really read 'He dedicated the book to John Lennon, Paul McCartney and his two ex-wives'.

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  10. I use the Oxford comma happily, but suffer terrible angst about the occasional clause that requires a comma after 'and'.

    And now I'm reading that sentence wondering if it's grammatical!

    One of my most embarrassing moments recently was typing me instead of my in a blog comment ... I know it was a typo but what will folk reading it think ... oh the shame ;D

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  11. Why is it we often spot the typo in the split second that we hit the 'publish' key - but still do not manage to prevent the error?

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  12. Hooray! Another hair-splitting word-wrangler! I am not alone in the universe.

    My nephew sent me a link in Facebook (about a week ago) regarding the Oxford comma. He knows my weakness for justifiable grammatical nit-picking.

    Thanks for commenting on my blog. (I shall have to watch my Ps and Qs now.)

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  13. Hello,
    Pomona sent me here after I wrote about Oxford Commas. You wait for years for a post about commas and then two come along at once. Such serendipity!
    Nice to meet you
    Alice

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