Does seeing an extraneous comma, offend you?

[Orrex]

No? Then how about overbearing grammar police?

[ForrestGump]

1. I, dont' know

What does, extraneous, mean¿

[crim son]

2. No, indeed. In fact, a sentence, is not well done, unless,

it contains, exactly, half as many, commas, as words,.

[cracksquirrel]

3. Ooh yes.

I'm barely restraining myself from strangling you with a semi-colon as we speak!

[LiberalHeart]

4. I'm offended by the lack of commas...

... in lists these days. Remember the old rule? One fewer commas than items in a list -- but now books, magazines, and newspapers are dropping the comma before the final "and". I think it's all a plot to drive me nuts.

[billyskank]

6. I was always taught that way

a list should go like: this, this and that.

Do you write: this, and that? No. The commas are there to separate items, but there is no need to separate "this and that" because it already makes sense.

[LiberalHeart]

10. Commas clarify and eliminate the chance of misinterpretation

"I like candy, ice cream, and cake" indicates I like three items.

"I like candy, ice cream and cake" indicates I like one item, and a combination of two other items.

"The dresss comes in red, white, blue, green, and blue" indicates the dress comes in five colors.

"The dress comes in red, white, blue, green and blue" indicates the dress comes in three solid colors, and in a fabric that features two colors: green and blue.

Because I do a good bit of copy editing, I toss back in the commas that others remove. It's my swim against the tide. Tiring, fruitless, and unappreciated -- yes -- but necessary to the purist.

[Orrex]

18. I asked about that very issue a few weeks ago here on the Lounge

My opinion is the same as yours, in that the candy, ice cream, and cake are three distinct items rather than one item and a linked pair of items.

When I asked the question, I was informed that it's a Strunk & White vs. MLA thing. I'll stick with Strunk & White, thanks!

[billyskank]

23. Delete

[Anarcho-Socialist]

50. No!

Don't delete.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

26. I was taught the comma before the add was optional.

[Oeditpus Rex]

28. It is

Newspaper style is to omit the serial comma. Most other text forms don't follow this.

I think it looks utterly silly to write something like "Lions, and tigers, and bears." And I won't even discuss "Eats, Shoots and Leaves."

Come to think of it, there shouldn't be any commas in "Lions and tigers and bears."




G'hed. Somebody's gotta say it.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

29. Oh my!

[Oeditpus Rex]

32. Thanks

I can sleep now. :7

[Flaxbee]

39. that's the "Oxford comma"

The 'Oxford comma' is an optional comma before the word 'and' at the end of a list:

We sell books, videos, and magazines.
It is so called because it was traditionally used by printer's readers and editors at Oxford University Press. Sometimes it can be necessary for clarity when the items in the list are not single words:

These items are available in black and white, red and yellow, and blue and green.
Some people do not realize that the Oxford comma is acceptable, possibly because they were brought up with the supposed rule (which Fowler would call a 'superstition') about putting punctuation marks before and.

*********

And how did I first learn about this? From Colin Dexter, author of the Inspector Morse mysteries (Morse being an almost-Oxford man (didn't finish)).

[billyskank]

5. Not as much as an extraneous apostrophe

or a missing one.

Besides, when you're talking on an American message board you get used to an overenthusiastic use of commas. :P

[RebelOne]

33. Yup, it's those apostrophes that offend me.

You know, the ones that some people stick in plural nouns.

[idgiehkt]

7. doesn't offend me, just slows me down

Im' always the one that cant' put the apostrophe in the right place in a contraction, so I shouldnt' bitch about a comma.

[Whoa_Nelly]

8. Not the comma or the grammar police...

It's the misuse of the poor apostrophe :cry:

It's not the 1990's! It's the 1990s!

It's not about making CD's! It's all about making CDs!

Did the cat hurt it's paw? No! The cat hurt its paw!

(Does my overuse of the exclamation point bug you?) :rofl:

[Dangerously Amused]

9. I'm with you.

It's not so much the comma's that bother me, it's the misuse of apostrophe's.


And no, you're use of exclamation's doe's not bother me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Whoa_Nelly]

12. AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! Help me!!!!

DA is attacking my brain and abusing apostrophes!!!!! AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Help save the poor li'l ol' apostrophe!

DA! I sentence you to spend time at The Apostrophe Protection Society website!

http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/

The Apostrophe Protection Society was started in 2001 by John Richards, now its Chairman, with the specific aim of preserving the correct use of this currently much abused punctuation mark in all forms of text written in the English language.

on edit:
Apparently The Apostrophe Protection Society finds the use of run-on sentences and poor sentence structure not only correct, but possibly appealing. :rofl:

<snip>
We are just reminding all writers of English text, whether on notices or in documents of any type, of the correct usage of the apostrophe should you wish to put right mistakes you may have inadvertently made.

And here, from The Apostrophe Protection Society are real life examples of apostrophe abuse:

http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/examples.htm
(Many more examples can be seen at above link)

[Dangerously Amused]

14. OMG, that is both hilarious and cool!

Kudo's to you for that!


Heh.


:hi:

[Whoa_Nelly]

16. Go back to my post

Added some fun photos from that site :rofl:

[Oeditpus Rex]

30. And on that note

there's no such thing as "a kudo."

[Kali]

37. oooh ooh I have a kudos question!

Was trying to see if "A big kudos to so-and-so..." correct? How (or is it even "proper"?) to qualify the kudos you are offering? "Lots of kudos" would be wrong, correct?

I could not find a resource with usage examples.

[Oeditpus Rex]

41. Well, now you've got me

I've never used it in any form other than "Kudos to..."

I shall ask some people who know such things better than I.

[Kali]

44. Kudos to you!

Thanks. I had a feeling I was on to a good question.

[Oeditpus Rex]

45. No replies so far

But few of the regular curmudgeons are on the copy desk on weekends.

We shall press on!

[Dangerously Amused]

17. Wow. That's funny and sad.

Here's something else that's funny and sad: One of my earliest jobs was in a printing house. A customer brought in a mock-up for a brochure, replete with spelling and grammatical errors. So I corrected all the errors before typesetting the brochure. The customer picks up the brochure and the next day complains to my boss because I corrected his errors (WTF?). Apparently he WANTED the incorrect apostrophe in his business letterhead. So my boss yells at me and tells me that "the customer is always right" and I am to reproduce things exactly as they are brought in. Fine, whatever. Like two weeks later another customer comes in with a project, again riddled with spelling and grammatical errors. So... I do as I am instructed and typeset the work exactly as submitted. Next day the guy comes in and complains because I DIDN'T correct his errors. So my boss FIRES ME for insubordination. WTF?!? So I sued the fucker for wrongful termination. And I won. Ha ha, take that you asshole! Oh, and he ran a franchise, but the name of HIS company was Filstrich. Which stood for Filthy Stinking Rich.

Why yes, he was a republican. How did you guess? :eyes:

[leeroysphitz]

42. Maybe the owner of the nudist resort is actually named Four Season.

I'ts, possible....

[Cannikin]

27. My mother was attacked by a rogue comma I've never been the same.

[Monk06]

11. Commas, remind, me, that, I, am, stoned. zzzzzzzzzzzz

[SeattleGirl]

13. It doesn't, offend me. But it does, drive, me buggy.

The lack of commas where they should be also drives me buggy. i do try not to grammar police people, though, at least not on here. I reserve that for things I am review of others, and for my own work. I have done a lot of proofreading over the years; in fact, I used to proof book galleys for a professor I worked for, and being a good grammar policeperson was essential.

[NNadir]

15. Yes, I am deeply offended on a personal level by extraneous commas.

Dangling participles are worse, but extraneous commas are pretty terrible.

Now, I favor the death penalty for misplaced modifiers and to foolishly spit infinites, well can we bring back drawing and quartering?

[ghostsofgiants]

19. Yes it does, offend me.

And it'd be punctuation police, not grammar police. (The english language police subscribe heavily to the concept of division of labour.)

[Orrex]

43. But wait!

I didn't say that the Grammar Police were in charge of tracking comma misuse; I merely asked the readers' opinions re: overbearing Grammar Police.

:evilgrin:

[ghostsofgiants]

47. What are you, the semantics police?

[Orrex]

48. What are you, anti-Semantic?

I find that offensive. :)

Anyway, I was just being snarky. No need to tense up, friend.

[ghostsofgiants]

49. Haha, I was just being snarky as well.

Always assume I'm kidding about things like this. If I was being serious, you'd know, ahha.

[jobycom]

20. commas orrex should be banned in the Lounge General Discussion literature

in general and in books magazines and blogs.

[miss_american_pie]

21. Grammar police are sexy

:hi:

[datasuspect]

22. and necessary

it is a thankless job enforcing minimum standards of literacy.

we risk our lives everyday to ensure that the streets are safe for elementary school level english comprehension.

[KT2000]

24. I use commas

when I get tired - gives a breather till you think of the next thing to say,,,,,,

[Broken_Hero]

25. no, and no...nt

[struggle4progress]

31. N,o! And the gmaramr poicle can tkae a ncie lnog wlak off a sroht peir!

[GoddessOfGuinness]

34. ,,,,,:::::::;;;;;;,,,,,

::::::;;;;;;;,,,,,,,,:::::::<><><><><,,.,,.,.,.,,.,.,.<><><><><;;;;;;;;;;::::::::;;:;;::;;::

[Skittles]

35. well it doesn't offend me

but it breaks my train of thought if I'm reading something. If I see this in the writing of someone I know well I will point it out, usually because they are asking me to edit. :)

[Jamastiene]

36. The Grammar police sometimes bug me.

The extra comma isn't a big deal. I'd rather see that than waste my time downloading a reply only to find a correction on grammar. Can we flip the bird unanimously?

[NewWaveChick1981]

38. It makes my brain hurt.

:hurts:

[Schema Thing]

40. I don't know why, I'm so damn prone to comma, misuse

Have me write 10 sentences and I'll give you 20 unnecessary commas. I think I must be just inches away from being in a comma.

[sendero]

I'm always doing that...

.. my ex called me the king of comma splices - here I'll use a dash!

I can't help it, my mind thinks that way and my fingers are just trying to keep up :)

[sendero]

46. dangit dupe deleted

...

[Zhade]

51. S,o,m,e,t,i,m,e,s.

:D

[petronius]

52. Only in the 2nd Amendment...

Actually, I somewhat like the grammar police; sometimes I learn something from them, and I always get to pat myself on the back for not being such an uptight jackass as to feel the need to correct a total stranger on a message board.

(Are there any flaws in that excessively lengthy sentence?)

[last_texas_dem]

53. No, I support them

I'm one of those people who errs on the side of extra commas. So, if I don't know whether to stick in a comma or not, I figure it's safer to include an extraneous one than to leave one out and have it turn out to be a necessary one.