I remember learning that when you have 3 things in succession, you don’t have to put a comma between the last 2, but that it was preferred.
Is it just me, or has everyone given up on that second comma? It’s a case of
“I like candy, plastic toys and thrift stores.”
VS
“I like candy, plastic toys, and thrift stores.”
The extra comma just looks better, and, I think, sets off each item nicely and equally. In the first sentence, doesn’t it kind of look like “candy” is one item, and “plastic toys and thrift stores” is another?
I don’t like it.
When a word is capitalized and hyphenated, do you have capital letters at the front of both parts? Because “Test-word” looks like ass to me.
This I know is against the rules, and I don’t care. It’s just more aesthetically pleasing to me, and looks are what counts, right?
I HATE the way it looks when the punctuation is included before the second quotation mark, if what’s in quotes isn’t a complete sentence.
Example:
She said I was “interesting,” and then she left.
VS
She said I was “interesting”, and then she left.
See, that comma just doesn't belong with the quote part. It belongs to that whole part.
Be honest: you hate it too. Don’t worry, I won’t tell your 6th grade English teacher.
So, yeah, I'm insane and a complete nerd. Officially now, I think.
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5 comments:
I totally agree on points
A and C, but B doesn't bother me so much. - chris d.
Point A: It's fast becoming the academic standard to put a comma after the "and" in a series. The only reason it was ever omitted was because, in the early days of the printing press, printmakers tried to save as much as money as possible. One way of doing so was to eliminate an allegedly disposable comma. Today, we teach all of our students to put the comma after and.
And for point C, the logic behind placing periods and commas inside the quotation marks stems again from the printing press. On the printed page, commas and periods look weird floating away from the words they conlcude. This is why "small" punctuation, commas and periods, go inside the quotation marks, while "large" punctuation, question and exclamation marks, can go outside the quotations. At least that's how I teach it.
I've got nothing for point B, though.
sorry jessy, i'm an old fashioned grammar fascist, and i disagree on all counts...A: i was taught to avoid extraneous punctuation (except in emails and blogging to my friends), so i tend not to add the comma. Similar reasoning with point b. and in C, I think the comma does belong with the quotes, because the quote is treated as a clause. And I hate the way the floating comma looks, especially on a computer. I always like commas next to a letter, otherwise it looks like it's floating in space.
You may not know it from my online writing, but my academic/job hunting writing is VERY grammatically aware, to the point where I've been looking at getting some new grammar guides.
your nerd skills cannot compare to mine!
I use the comma before the "and" and I put the comma inside the quotes, even though I hate the way it looks.
I am constantly shocked by how many of my peers (and superiors!) have abysmal grammar. And it is tolerated - I find grammatical and spelling errors in major scientific journals all the damn time. Not that I don't make mistakes now and then but for fuck's sake, I know you're/your.
when i was in that freshman comp class (whatever it was called at pitt), i was getting worse grades than people who literally could not form a complete sentence because my prof was an uber-bitch...and that, my friends, is why grammar is dying a loud, painful death
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