Monday, May 4, 2009
Support the Serial Comma!
This is the title of the University of Chicago's new fundraising campaign. I can't help but find this incredibly funny (and totally UofC). As an editor, you tend to have a bunch of little grammar pet peeves that just grind when you see them. I'm the first to admit that I have completely awful grammar and poor writing style - I write with a lot of irritating clauses and sidenotes and am very stream of consciousness. It's because I'm lazy, and why I could never be a professional writer even if I could get someone to publish me. However, I do have one big pet peeve as an editor (and before) - the serial comma. I love it. I obsess about it. Even more so because it's so controversial. When I see a series without a comma before the conjunction, a little shiver runs down my spine and I grimace. I want to shake the author until their teeth rattle. I'm that violent. It must be because it was pounded into me in grade school the way the hamburger structure of a paragraph was (two buns, with the meat in the middle). But either way - you go UofC! Support the serial comma!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
5 comments:
ARGH! I'm with you on this! I can't STAND when people omit the serial comma (or, to sound pretentious, the "Oxford" comma). I'm a copywriter and editor, and sometimes co-workers and clients have the audacity to delete it from work I've developed, as if I'm in the wrong. This not only raises my blood pressure, but my homicidal tendencies as well. Sheesh. Thanks for letting me vent.
I used to have some "Save the Comma!" stickers. I love the comma! I'm a stickler! Check out the fun at this website: http://www.savethecomma.com.
If you are a grammar geek, I'd actually recommend reading 'Eats, shoot and leaves.' In my utter nerdiness, I thought it was hilarious, although my punctuation often leaves a lot to be desired (disgraceful in an editor). I also recommend the grammar girl blog, which I actively read in an effort to improve myself. Am I the only one who constantly misuses the 'en' and 'em' dash?
Yes! Grammar Girl rocks!
I don't care too much for Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, but I love this book review of it: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/06/28/040628crbo_books1
I like the second part of the review.
I told Sally Foster Wallace (grammarian mother of David) that I thought Lynne Truss was going too far when she said that people who misuse apostrophes should be dismembered and left in unmarked graves. She agreed and said that the graves should probably be marked.
Her son wrote my second favorite book review: a review of Garner's Modern American Usage (http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/DFW_present_tense.html). That's the book I prefer over Eats, Shoots, and Leaves (though the latter book boasts the better title).
I have chosen to accept the drift of language as natural, and stick to a single peeve: using "literally" as an intensifier. Correct: "I hated it so much I threw the book against the wall. Literally." Incorrect: "It was so cold that hell froze over. Literally." There is no word to replace "literally" after it goes the way of "totally."
Post a Comment