Talk:Oxford comma
From English Grammar and Usage
This article is delicious. Thanks to the writer(s).
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[edit] Omissions
This whole essay completely ignores one of the reasons for including serial commas: to agree with speech pattern. What I mean is this: say to yourself that you want to buy eggs and meat and cheese without the first "and". More than likely you will say "eggs, meat, and cheese", where each comma represents a slight pause in speech. Obviously the purpose of a comma is not just to serve this function; nor indeed does a comma always indicate a pause. But this essay is incomplete without this fact included.
[edit] North American Usage
I wonder where the writer gets his or her notions about North American usage. Some citations here that support that idea that North American punctuation has not changed since the 19th century would be in order. This noted by someone (North American) who edits professionally[,] and who is somewhat skeptical of this claim.
[edit] Historical Usage
This author lets their personal feelings about punctuation color the way they present history. Punctuation, and much else, is in fact more vibrant in the US because of a lack of centralized authority legislating against innovation. The claimed drive towards less punctuation, to the extent that such exists, has been driven largely by journalistic concerns about space, and can be expected to retreat with the advent of limitless electronic print. Furthermore, what the author depicts as advances in style appear to me as limitations: take the fun, well-cadenced sentence about Charles I which the essayist rewrites clumsily, and then claims to have improved. The author should be crucified, boiled in oil, tarred and feathered!
[edit] Oxford Comma Comment
Thanks for this very interesting write-up on the Oxford comma...I wish you were my English teacher all those years...I learned quite a bit - not just telling right from wrong, but why ... annnnnd examples!! Nicely written.
This essay needs to be rewritten so as not to appeal to punctuation in general - or when it does to refer to a separate essay. The need to even mention esthetics on the subject of the so-called Oxford comma is questionable. I can understand it with regard to how a comma relates to quotes, but even there is seems associated more with layout.
I am appalled that one so articulate does not seem to know the difference between a hyphen and a dash. Maybe HTML is getting in the way. Then there is the difference between an n-dash and an m-dash.
There are a number of clues that tell us the writer is clueless about North American habits.
