Re: Punctuation
You are saying that a comma before a word of direct address is now optional?
Do you have any authorities for this? I'm serious. I cannot accept it as
optional unless there's a recognized authority that has recommended such
optional use.
In other words, it's not okay just because people on the Web make the error
and some people (like you and Jean) do not find it objectionable. There's a
rule of direct address, and it calls for a comma. However, if there's a
recognized authority that has recommended that the comma's use be optional, I
would be happy to agree to it even if I don't ever use it.
Okay, let's remember who the authority is, shall we? We have met the authority and it is us (apologies to Walt Kelly).
Punctuation, spelling, and many (not all) other materials of the copyeditor's craft are conventional. That means that we--skilled, educated writers and editors--agree by convention that at this time and in this place and in this context we are going to use a comma or we are not going to use a comma.
Any given convention drifts as our ranks turn over, with younger members speaking up as older member retire. Periodically someone sticks a finger in the wind and writes down a bunch of current conventions in a popular style guide (New York Times, AP, APA, Chicago, ...). Then all those someones look around at what the other someones have written down and makes some further adjustments in the next edition. They (and we) are also influenced by novel usages we see in well written and well edited journals (Newsweek, Time, Scientific American, insert your favorites here), some of which migrate into standard usage.
So if David and Jean do not object to dropping the direct address comma requirement, and if I do not object, and if you, Bonnie, eventually decide you don't object, and if the Times starts dropping it and the AP decides to drop it (maybe they have already), and if Chicago comes aboard, well, voilà, next thing you know, it's dropped.
The cardinal rule remains that _within a given body of work_ you pick a rule and stick with it. If you pick a different rule for the next edition, that's fine. As long as you are internally consistent, you will not confuse your readers. There is no _logical_ reason to choose one convention over the other in this case. Take the rule that says you need a comma after an introductory phrase, but you can omit it if the phrase is shorter than six words. Any logic there? None. Just a convention. And a similar one can be applied to direct address when the sentence consists of a brief interjection, an addressee, and terminal punctuation. Hello World! Hello Bonnie! Goodbye Bonnie! Goodbye techwhirled!
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Follow-Ups:
- Re: Punctuation, Bonnie Granat
- Re: Punctuation, Bruce Byfield
References:
Re: Punctuation (was: I got thrown for a loop.): From: David Neeley
Re: Punctuation (was: I got thrown for a loop.): From: Bonnie Granat
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