|
Many of you no doubt saw the news last week that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo joined our ranks of fellow grammar watchdogs when he issued instructions to his staff on the proper use of commas. According to an internal State Department email given to CNN, “The Secretary has underscored the need for appropriate use of commas in his paper (both their inclusion and omission).”
One example illustrated Secretary Pompeo’s preference for the use of the Oxford comma: “The
wartime rations included cabbage, turnips, and bread.” In honor of the Secretary, today we are including our article about commas in a series of three
or more items that we first published on January 17, 2007.
We heard this news on CNN as reported by anchor Erica Hill in amused bewilderment that “this is about usage of commas”?
Simultaneously, the crawler at the bottom of the screen ironically
demonstrated the inclusion of an unnecessary comma as shown in our Wordplay
at the bottom of the newsletter.
Adding to the irony, the New York Magazine's Daily Intelligencer, led off its story by unknowingly demonstrating the unfortunate omission
of a comma:
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has a problem with improper punctuation and his staff is making sure everyone at the State Department knows about it. [Where's the comma before and separating the two independent clauses?]
We at GrammarBook.com welcome Secretary Pompeo’s focus on proper
grammar and punctuation, and we welcome him to our unofficial society of grammar nerds.
Commas Before and in a Series
In American English usage, many writers and editors feel that a comma should
precede and with three or more items in a series.
Example: I would like to order a salad, a sandwich, and dessert.
Newspapers and magazines do not generally use this rule as print space is
too valuable to use on what might be considered extraneous punctuation.
However, print publications will use the final comma before and if
it is needed to avoid confusion.
Example:
Her $10 million estate was split among her husband, daughter, son, and
nephew.
Omitting the comma after son would have led the reader to believe
that the son and nephew had to split one-third of the estate (each
receiving one-sixth) rather than understanding that each relative received
one-fourth of the estate.
For easy reference, you can find our full list of comma rules and
guidelines at
GrammarBook.com.
|
View and comment on this
article on our website.
|
|
Free BONUS Quiz for You!
[[firstname]], because you are a subscriber to the newsletter, you get access to one of the Subscribers-Only Quizzes. Click here to take a Commas Quiz and get your scores and explanations instantly!
We will be adding many more quizzes this year to our already substantial list of quizzes. If you have suggestions for topics we have not yet covered, please send us a message at help@grammarbook.com.
|
Hundreds of Additional Quizzes
at Your Fingertips
Subscribe now to receive hundreds of additional English usage quizzes not found anywhere else!
Teachers and Employers
Save hours of valuable time! You may assign quizzes to your students and employees and have their scores tallied, organized, and reported to you! Let GrammarBook.com take the hassle out of teaching English!
"Fun to test my skills."
"The explanations really help ... thanks!"
"I can select the quizzes to assign to my students, and then the results are reported to me automatically!"
|
|
Don't need all the quizzes?
You can now purchase the same quizzes individually for ONLY 99¢ each.
Purchase yours here. |
If you think you have found an error in a quiz, please email us at help@grammarbook.com
|
 |
The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
by Jane Straus, Lester Kaufman, and Tom Stern |
The Authority on English Grammar! Eleventh Edition Now Available
An indispensable tool for busy professionals, teachers, students, homeschool families, editors, writers, and proofreaders.
Available in print AND as an e-Book! Over 2,000 copies are purchased every month!
The publisher of The Blue Book, Jossey-Bass, A Wiley brand, is offering a 35 percent discount for those of you who order the book through Wiley.com. Shipping and tax are not included. Simply go to bit.ly/1996hkA and use discount code E9X4A.
Offer expires December 31, 2018.
|
Wordplay
Unless Secretary Pompeo is joined in his campaign
for proper punctuation by someone named Stickler,
we recommend omission of the second comma.
|
 |
English In A Snap:
68 One-Minute English Usage Videos FREE |
Learn all about who and whom, affect and effect, subjects and verbs, adjectives and adverbs, commas, semicolons, quotation marks, and much more by just sitting back and enjoying these easy-to-follow lessons. Tell your colleagues (and boss), children, teachers, and friends. Click here to watch.
|
|
