Comma use

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  • Comma use

    Here's a good resource: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/607/02/
    "Tone is now engaged in a furious Google search for Leighton Meester's keester." -- A friend of mine

  • #2
    Comma Use

    Is such a trifling thing as a comma absolutely necessary in this sentence?

    Or, this?
    Last edited by Fortean; 06-17-2009, 06:00 PM. Reason: Shuster spell-checker! Thanks!
    JEKYLL & CANADA (free .mp4 download @ Vimeo.com)

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    • #3
      Re: Comma use

      Not in the first (though "trifling" is the word you're looking for), and for the second it's optional (though, used as such, it's rather more 19th century than 20th), though I'd opt for it not to be there.


      Sorry, Fort. Couldn't resist!

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      • #4
        Re: Comma use

        I was always taught that a series of words (etc etc) should be seperated by commas, except where two are combined by a (something technical).

        "He lost his left leg, front teeth, eye patch and parrot in a poker game".
        "Don't ever pause here, here, here or here, unless you're feeling lucky".

        Any ideas on this one?
        Last edited by zarker99; 06-18-2009, 05:43 AM.
        "Now we're getting someplace".
        Oliver Hardy, 'The Music Box'.

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        • #5
          Re: Comma use

          A film-making friend of mine wrote this gem (in a post on a film-makers board, about a project he was doing):

          I probably will not bother to tell you the truth.

          Of course, what he meant was:

          I probably will not bother, to tell you the truth.

          I had those two lines in my email signature for a while, I thought the mistake was so funny. One punctuation mistake, so many implications. The comma is your friend.
          Last edited by The Other Steve; 07-17-2009, 02:21 AM.

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          • #6
            Re: Comma use

            Originally posted by zarker99 View Post
            I was always taught that a series of words (etc etc) should be separated by commas, except where two are combined by a (something technical).

            "He lost his left leg, front teeth, eye patch and parrot in a poker game".
            "Don't ever pause here, here, here or here, unless you're feeling lucky".

            Any ideas on this one?
            ... except when the two are joined by a conjunction is what you were looking for.

            However, the policy in the U.S. for all the time that I was growing up and later teaching English was to put a comma before the last conjunction also. I prefer it that way, and I always add the comma if I am editing something for somebody. In Britain it was, I think, standard to dispense with the final comma. Journalism, in the AP style sheet, wanted the final comma left out, but it also wanted you to spell whiskey as whisky and employee as employe, among some other absurdities. They finally stopped advocating these nonstandard practices, I think.

            Now, in the U.S., I see the comma omitted most of the time, but I suspect that this relates to the fact that English is no longer taught with anything approaching the rigor that used to be common in American schools and universities.

            "The fact that you have seen professionals write poorly is no reason for you to imitate them." - ComicBent.

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            • #7
              Re: Comma use

              A comma is used after the last conjunction in a series of more than four:

              "He served us steak, potatoes and green beans." That's fine.

              "He served us steak, potatoes, green beans and red wine." That's fine.

              But:

              "He served us steak, potatoes, green beans, red wine, and chocolate pudding." That's correct.

              But if the series is broken by something that's not like the others--

              "He served us steak, potatoes, green beans, and his wife joined us for dessert."

              --then you need that last comma. Because he didn't put his wife on the table as part of the meal.

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              • #8
                Re: Comma use

                For years, the best argument I'd heard for the Oxford comma had been from an apocryphal legal case. A man had written his own will and ordered his estate to be divided between "Andy, Bob and Charles." Andy mounted a legal argument that he should get 50% of the inheritance, since the lack of comma indicated Bob and Charles were supposed to be treated as a single entity. So not putting the comma was gramatically wrong and financially expensive.

                However, this example has been replaced by a book dedication which makes it far, far more clear how important that comma is.

                "I would like to thank my parents, Ayn Rand and God."

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                • #9
                  Re: Comma use

                  Famously, Graham Greene's signed statement as to the use of material for his future biographer hinged on a still-disputed comma.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Comma use

                    Originally posted by Peter Clines View Post
                    For years, the best argument I'd heard for the Oxford comma had been from an apocryphal legal case. A man had written his own will and ordered his estate to be divided between "Andy, Bob and Charles." Andy mounted a legal argument that he should get 50% of the inheritance, since the lack of comma indicated Bob and Charles were supposed to be treated as a single entity. So not putting the comma was gramatically wrong and financially expensive.

                    However, this example has been replaced by a book dedication which makes it far, far more clear how important that comma is.

                    "I would like to thank my parents, Ayn Rand and God."

                    Great post, Peter.
                    Ralphy's Fvcking Blog

                    "
                    Ever notice how 'monogamy' rhymes with 'monotony'?" -- Christian Troy

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                    • #11
                      Re: Comma use

                      The comma often turns up in legal cases, hence, why it's left out of many legal documents altogether, but in all things literary, it's a different matter, and, occasionally, it's used, far, too often, especially, if you dictate, your posts on, a, Blackberry, whilst walking up, the, steps of the Eiffel Tower ...

                      damn, exhausting ...
                      Last edited by The Road Warrior; 07-25-2009, 04:03 AM. Reason: lost my signal
                      Forthcoming: The Annual, "I JUST GOT DUMPED" Valentine's Short Screenplay Writing Competition. Keep an eye on Writing Exercises.

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                      • #12
                        Re: Comma use

                        For dramatic purposes, Road Warrior's is a great example.

                        For actors, a school of thought about Shakespeare is that the punctuation works in the same manner as musical scoring to indicate pace and rhythm. Commas indicate a short breath.

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