The rule is - and should be - use the comma only as necessary.
That's not a rule; that's a recipe for disaster. The serial comma provides consistency.
Yes. Men like sports. Men watch the action movie, they eat of the beef, and enjoy to look at the bosoms. A thousand years of avenging our wrongs and that's all you've learned?
Xander ,'End of Days'
Delurking 1: Because we don't always check our e-mail.
Polter-Cow - Oct 11, 2009 7:48:37 am PDT #941 of 3094
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Barb - Oct 11, 2009 7:50:44 am PDT #942 of 3094
“Not dead yet!”
Your parents, God and Ayn Rand, clearly warped you as a child, David.
::snickers quietly in the corner::
DavidS - Oct 11, 2009 7:51:33 am PDT #943 of 3094
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Look, ya'll can make up a broadly generalized rule that has limited application and stick it all over your sentences.
For example, any sentence with Billy Joel in it requires a semi-colon; he's just that awesome!
But you don't need a generalized rule about serial commas. You use the commas when it properly helps to convey the meaning you intend.
And it is nothing less than fustian to put a comma in before "and" in most cases.
DavidS - Oct 11, 2009 7:53:26 am PDT #944 of 3094
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
That's not a rule; that's a recipe for disaster. The serial comma provides consistency.
::Extends Hobgoblin Extractor into the narrow corridors of P-Cow's mind::
Glamcookie - Oct 11, 2009 7:57:08 am PDT #945 of 3094
I know my own heart and understand my fellow man. But I am made unlike anyone I have ever met. I dare to say I am like no one in the whole world. - Anne Lister
Up with the serial comma!
Amy - Oct 11, 2009 8:00:09 am PDT #946 of 3094
Because books.
And it is nothing less than fustian to put a comma in before "and" in most cases.
So, so sadly wrong.
::makes out with serial comma AND semi-colon::
Polter-Cow - Oct 11, 2009 8:00:41 am PDT #947 of 3094
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
And it is nothing less than fustian to put a comma in before "and" in most cases.
You know what's fustian?
Using words like "fustian."
tommyrot - Oct 11, 2009 8:01:38 am PDT #948 of 3094
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.
I hope we're not frightening the lurkers away....
Barb - Oct 11, 2009 8:03:02 am PDT #949 of 3094
“Not dead yet!”
The sad part is, if we made a punctuation thread, it would languish in obscurity, desolate, little tumbleweeds of serial commas and semi-colons rolling past...
Steph L. - Oct 11, 2009 8:09:57 am PDT #950 of 3094
Unusually and exceedingly peculiar and altogether quite impossible to describe
But you don't need a generalized rule about serial commas.
Whoa there! Either always use it, or never use it. But be consistent. Lack of consistency just looks downright sloppy and, therefore, poorly written.