Sept. 24 is National Punctuation Day, a time to think about all those lowly, little dots, lines, and squiggles that adorn the written word. One of the websites promoting the occasion announces, “Punctuation Day argues that correct use of apostrophes, semicolons and other punctuation is critical if you’re to get your message accross.”
Oh dear. Can you spot the two boo-boos in the statement above? Most obvious is the misspelling accross. Less apparent is the lack of a serial comma after the word semicolons and before the and. Here’s what I mean by the term serial comma:
What’s the difference between a cat and a comma?
A cat has claws at the end of its paws, but a comma is a pause at the end of a clause.
The most important function of the comma is to indicate a natural pause. When you write, rather than speak, you need punctuation marks to serve your readers in the same way that timing, pitch, and inflection serve your listeners. Commas reflect the cadence of the spoken word. When we say, faith, hope, and charity and tall, dark, and handsome, we assign equal pauses after each noun or adjective. In writing, these pauses become commas. That’s why we press commas into service to separate words, phrases, or clauses in a series.
A series is a succession of two or more items cast in similar grammatical form.
A series can consist of nouns: We press commas into service to separate words, phrases, or clauses in a series.
A series can string together a sequence of verbs: Red Riding Hood played a calamitous round of golf, drove into the river, and threw the woods.
A series can be a succession of adjectives: My red, white, and blue rubber ducky is my favorite bath toy.
A series can be made up of clauses: I came, I saw the uncut grass, and I ran back into the house.
Note that I have placed a serial comma before each of the conjunctions (in the examples above, the word and) that precede the last item in each series. Most newspapers and many other publications don’t employ this serial comma, but in more formal writing, such as essays, business letters, and literary works, the serial comma is ordinarily retained. I recommend that you use the serial comma because I have found that in many sentences the comma before the conjunction is an aid to clarity, emphasis, and meaning.
Consider:
• For dinner, the Girl Scouts ate steak, onions and ice cream. [Sounds as if the Scouts ingested a yucky concoction of onions and (urp!) ice cream. A serial comma before the and would avoid gastronomic disaster.]
• The serial comma is an aid to clarity, emphasis and meaning. [Here, the rhythm of the series sounds uneven. A serial comma before and would help the final term, meaning, to ring out as clearly and emphatically as the others.]
• At summer camp I missed my dog, my little brother, the odor of my dad’s pipe and my boyfriend. [A serial comma before and would avoid odoriferous ambiguity.]
Finally, note the havoc wreaked by the absence of the serial comma in the following Los Angeles Times photo caption (beneath a picture of Merle Haggard) and an actual book dedication:
• The documentary was filmed over three years. Among those interviewed were his two ex-wives, Kris Kristofferson and Robert Duvall. [Who, exactly, were those ex-wives?]
• To my parents, the Pope and Mother Teresa [Who, exactly, were the writer’s parents?]
Please send your questions and comments about language to richard.lederer@utsandiego.com