Serial commas: yes or no

Holly · Post by **Holly** » January 11th, 2010, 4:41 am

Serial commas, yes or no?

Bryan Russell/Ink · Post by **Bryan Russell/Ink** » January 11th, 2010, 7:55 am

Hey, it worked for Captain Kirk...

taylormillgirl · Post by **taylormillgirl** » January 11th, 2010, 10:20 am

Is a serial comma the same as the Oxford comma? If so, that's a big yes for me.

polymath · Post by **polymath** » January 11th, 2010, 11:58 am

Associated Press and Words Into Type style manuals have the serial comma as downstyle: A, B and/or C. Chicago's 15th edition and MLA's formal: A, B, and/or C. Chicago's 14th edition relaxed to the downstyle serial comma, but reverted to its original formal position for the 15th edition. I prefer Chicago's recommendation for the greater clarity it provides for longer serial elements, nested serials, and parallel serial elements incorporated after a primary series.

The driverless car rolled down Leighton HIll, pin-balled into Mack, Beanie, James, Reddington, and Delbert's parked cars, flipped on its roof, and came to rest on the sidewalk bike rack.

He'd taken advanced algebra, anthropology, sociology, astronomy, political geography, and rhetoric courses, and all the basic studies courses, of course, and literature studies, before he began writing concentration coursework.

In polysyndeton; however, no commas.

There ain't much to do and never was and never will or ever was meant to be in this piddle dunk spit pot town.

Kaitlyne · Post by **Kaitlyne** » January 11th, 2010, 7:04 pm

I wanna say no, but I think I've got a couple of lines that would qualify in my current WIP. Maybe. I'm too lazy to go searching at the moment for the quote to find out. ;)

Post by **Nathan Bransford** » January 11th, 2010, 11:43 pm

Yes, yes, and yes.

Kaitlyne · Post by **Kaitlyne** » January 12th, 2010, 1:38 am

Found one. Pretty sure this counts. My answer hereby becomes a "yes." ;)

If you follow the corridor from my office far enough, you’ll just end up at the First National Bank on the corner of Fourth Street (not that any security protocol allows for it). But if you get on the right elevator, and punch in the right code, and happen to have an authorized hand measuring at least 97.5 degrees Fahrenheit in your possession, you can follow the trail through the mechanical-gray hallways and the stale, forced air all the way to the dorms.

My narrator gets carried away sometimes haha.

matildamcc · Post by **matildamcc** » January 12th, 2010, 3:46 pm

Yes, always use series commas. It's the standard now.

jan · Post by **jan** » January 13th, 2010, 2:58 pm

just don't get me started on the en dash vs. em dash debate ;-j

RebeccaKnight · Post by **RebeccaKnight** » January 14th, 2010, 5:30 pm

Oh, thank goodness :). I always use serial commas, so I'm glad to be part of the Cool Crowd!

RachelBateman · Post by **RachelBateman** » January 14th, 2010, 6:20 pm

Yes! Always, always.

Pesimisticus · Post by **Pesimisticus** » January 14th, 2010, 8:54 pm

A resounding YES!

charlotte49ers · Post by **charlotte49ers** » January 14th, 2010, 9:27 pm

It's what we teach our third graders to do, so I hope it's right! :-P

Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Serial commas: yes or no

Serial commas: yes or no

Re: Serial commas: yes or no

Re: Serial commas: yes or no

Re: Serial commas: yes or no

Re: Serial commas: yes or no

Re: Serial commas: yes or no

Re: Serial commas: yes or no

Re: Serial commas: yes or no

Re: Serial commas: yes or no

Re: Serial commas: yes or no

Re: Serial commas: yes or no

Re: Serial commas: yes or no

Re: Serial commas: yes or no

Who is online