VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

Foog · Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2013 12:13 pm Post subject:

I loves me some Oxford comma! But I'm also fascinated by the few times when it DOESN'T work. Here are a couple I've found (these are from mentalfloss.com)...

"Those at the ceremony were the commodore, the fleet captain, the donor of the cup, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Jones."
With the comma, it reads as if Mr. Smith was the donor of the cup, which he was not.

"There are certain places where for the sake of clarity and good form the presence of a comma is obligatory, but on the other hand a too liberal use of this form of punctuation tends to slow up the pace of the reading matter and to create confusion and hesitancy in the mind of the reader."
This one just "reads" better without more commas, the content itself happily explains why.

and my favourite...
"By train, plane and sedan chair, Peter Ustinov retraces a journey made by Mark Twain a century ago. The highlights of his global tour include encounters with Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector."
Supposedly from an actual TV listing. The Oxford comma would keep Mandela from being a dildo collector. However, even the Oxford comma can't keep him from being an 800-year-old demigod. "There's only so much a comma can do."

jasbart · Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2013 12:31 pm Post subject:

Yonie · CM Joined: 31 Aug 2011 Posts: 906

Or you could simply rearrange the list to read "...Mr. Smith, Mr. Jones, and the donor of the cup." Either way, that sentence will be confusing.

Lee Gordon · Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2013 4:52 pm Post subject:

There is only so much a comma can do. If arranging the commas in a sequence does not eliminate the ambiguity, it's time to re-write the sentence, or even break it into two sentences.
_________________
Lee Gordon, O.A.V.
Voice President of the United States
www.leegordonproductions.com
Twitter: @LeeGordonVoice

vkuehn · Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2013 6:14 pm Post subject:

As I follow this thread, I find myself sorting things out this way:
(1) If I am writing material that other people will read in an essay, a book or a letter, the use of commas should help the reader, and not distract the reader who might stop following the thought and start pondering grammar and writing style and lose the thought.

(2) If I am formatting a script to that I can read it aloud, or some some other oral-delivery-person can read aloud, then I may use commas, ellipses, blank space or strangely placed line-breaks to help the delivery of the oral product. (The listener need never know about punctuation that was strange or against the rules.)

The listener will not observe commas, Oxford or otherwise, but will hear voice inflections that do for the listener..... what commas and underlines and yellow hi-liters do for us.

Now, when I go into the studio.... can I remember how that system works?

Mike Harrison · Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 9:13 pm Post subject:

WillMWatt · Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2014 2:48 am Post subject:

In my other life, I work for Oxford University. I always considered myself a bit of a grammar pedant before I started there. Nope, turns out I'm not. You've heard of Grammar Nazis; these are the bloody Gestapo!

So, since learning what the Oxford Comma actually is, I have become a keen proponent. Anything to stop a member of the governing body pedantically "misunderstanding" my emails, in order to point out my stupidity, is a winner in my book.