Still not convinced of the importance of the serial comma? A court ruling in a labor dispute earlier this year upped the stakes of this normally low-profile punctuation mark. McCarthy presented on the annual budget the plans to hire a director of operations, a chief financial officer, and a human resources assistant the fund-raising efforts of the development committee, which expects to meet its goal by the end of the fiscal year the recent accomplishments of the committees on accessibility, research, and sustainability and the restructuring of the product development team. The addition of serial semicolons makes clear which items belong together and makes the sentence easier to read: McCarthy presented on the annual budget, the plans to hire a director of operations, a chief financial officer, and a human resources assistant, the fund-raising efforts of the development committee, which expects to meet its goal by the end of the fiscal year, the recent accomplishments of the committees on accessibility, research, and sustainability, and the restructuring of the product development team. Here’s a more complex example where serial semicolons are needed: To use serial semicolons, place them wherever you would normally place serial commas, to separate like terms. The semicolons make it clear that there are four speakers. The invited speakers are the association’s president the vice president the councilwoman, Suzette Tanner and Walter McCarthy, the executive director. Here, commas aren’t enough to clarify the items in the series: is the councilwoman named Suzette Tanner or are Suzette Tanner and the councilwoman two people? Adding serial semicolons provides clarity: The invited speakers are the association’s president, the vice president, the councilwoman, Suzette Tanner, and Walter McCarthy, the executive director. When items in series themselves contain commas, additional punctuation is needed to clarify the items. Without the serial comma, there’s no way to know. But, alternatively, the sentence might mean that Sam met three people, not one: Deirdre, a friend, and his dentist. Sam took his dog for a walk and ran into Deirdre, a friend and his dentist.Īs written, the sentence might mean that Deirdre is a friend of Sam’s and also his dentist. Without a serial comma placed after peach or after mango, it isn’t clear if “peach and mango” is one flavor or if “mango and pineapple” is. Lia ordered three smoothies: strawberry, peach and mango and pineapple. Here’s an example where omitting the serial comma results in ambiguity: Proponents of the serial comma, like the MLA, would decry the inconsistency of the use-it-when-you-need-it approach and advocate using the serial comma in all series of three or more items or phrases. Fair-weather comma users: publications that do not require the serial comma may use it only when misreading results. Who would object to unambiguous prose? you might ask. With the exception of newspapers, most publications use the serial comma, because it helps writers avoid ambiguity. This comma precedes the final item in a list or series, before the word and or or. Perhaps no mark of punctuation ruffles feathers more than the serial comma (also called series comma, Oxford comma, and Harvard comma).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |