RE: comma question

Subject: RE: comma question
From: "Sean Brierley" <sbri -at- haestad -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 09:32:03 -0500


Serial comma? Use it. Why not? Isn't it about time for the popular Ann
Rynd example?

"I'd like to thank my parents, Ann Rynd and God."

"I'd like to thank my parents, Ann Rynd, and God."

Cheers,

Sean

-----------------------------------------
Sean Brierley
Software Documentation Specialist
Haestad Methods
http://www.haestad.com
203-805-0572 (voice)
203-597-1488 (fax)



-----Original Message-----
From: Jeanne Rescigno [mailto:jeanne -at- valuenyc -dot- com]

At 07:27 AM 1/27/2003 -0700, you wrote:
>When listing items in a sentence, the rule is to separate the items
with
>commas. What is the rule on putting a comma before the conjunction
>separating the last item in the list? For example, the following
>sentence:
>He asked her to go to the store, buy her groceries, and cook her
dinner.


It's a question of style. Chicago and the GPO say to use the comma
before
the conjunction; Associated Press and the NY Times say (usually) no (but

admit that sometimes it is needed to avoid ambiguity).

So pick a style and be consistent. I always include it if I am setting
the
style.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
A new book on Single Sourcing has been released by William Andrew
Publishing: _Single Sourcing: Building Modular Documentation_
is now available at: http://www.williamandrew.com/titles/1491.html.

Help Authoring Seminar 2003, coming soon to a city near you! Attend this
educational and affordable one-day seminar covering existing and emerging
trends in Help authoring technology. See http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l2.

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.



Follow-Ups:

Previous by Author: RE: Managing Adobe Fonts - How?
Next by Author: RE: comma question
Previous by Thread: Re: comma question
Next by Thread: Re: comma question


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads