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Subject:Re: Proper use of commas in England? From:Beverly Parks <bparks -at- HUACHUCA-EMH1 -dot- ARMY -dot- MIL> Date:Thu, 30 Nov 1995 08:36:06 MST
From Matt Ion:
I know that here in Canada, we were always taught to omit the
last comma. Our take on the language often has more in common
with it British roots than with the American bastardizations
<g> so I would expect that, as with many other parts of
language, things like this that are the "rule" in Canada are
pretty much the "law" across the pond.
============
As much as I support the British method when it comes to
ending punctuation and quotation marks (oops, different list), I
must definitely side with the American Way(TM) on the comma issue
(assuming it's true that the Brits leave out the final comma in
a series). This topic has been discussed extensively here
before, so I won't list a bunch of examples, but consistently
using the final comma prevents confusion, plain and simple.
As with everything, there is an exception. If logic dictates the
final comma be omitted, then it should. (As when the final two
elements in a list represent a unit.)
=*= Beverly Parks -- bparks -at- huachuca-emh1 -dot- army -dot- mil =*=
=*= Huachuca : That's pronounced "wah-CHEW-ka" =*=
=*= "Unless otherwise stated, all comments are my own. =*=
=*= I am not representing my employer in any way." =*=
