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Tuesday Grammer Poll, Part 2 ... Revenge of the Comma ....

Posted by i'm not dead yet ! (aka pacrat) Mar 16 '10, 09:08

something that's bothered me for a while is what I perceive to be the absense of a comma where needed .... here's an example :

Today at the zoo, we saw lions, tigers and bears.

shouldn't it read :

Today at the zoo, we saw lions, tigers, and bears.

?

all too often i see things in print where the last two things are not separated by a "," ....

and it kind of makes me feel like we're left hanging for that one more thing, like the tigers and bears where together as "one thing"... to me it sort of shifts emphasis on words...

Today at the zoo, we saw lions, tigers and bears, and penquins...

so am i totally wrong here? or, as i suspect, there are a lot of poor gramatacists out there?

Responses:

I always go by the rule "as few commas as possible", and I was taught not to put commas before "and" -- nm - Roger More Mar 16, 09:28
it was as if a b.-signal in the sky pointed me to sign-on just now. I always use it, and it's common use/proper pretty much - b. Mar 16, 09:22
i learned it needs the comma -- nm - tRuMaN Mar 16, 09:20
I learned in school that it's sorta optional. My teacher preferred to see it, but it wasn't wrong to omit it. (nm) - musubi Mar 16, 09:16
When I ask experts this, I hear back "it's correct either way". Which is, of course', maddening. - Dr.Vermin Mar 16, 09:15 3
- Grammar isn't math. We should probably be thankful for this. -- nm - Reagen Mar 16, 09:16 2
  - ...athough it would make your job transition a lot easier. (nm) - musubi Mar 16, 09:17 1
    - I think I still write like an engineer at times. - Reagen Mar 16, 09:21
My Ex (an Editor) always told me that final comma is no longer required - decline Mar 16, 09:15 1
- And is the final comma. -- nm - Kick Ass Mar 16, 09:18
We wera taught not to use one before "and". -- nm - Kick Ass Mar 16, 09:14
I could be completely wrong here and likely am but I sometimes am tempted to use a semi-colon at the beginning... - Mel Profit Mar 16, 09:12 2
- Yeah, you're wrong. -- nm - Ender Mar 16, 09:13 1
  - stupid Mrs. Collins and her overhead projector. - Mel Profit Mar 16, 09:16
Ah, irony. -- nm - Mop (222 lbs) Mar 16, 09:12
[deleted] 2
- point taken (or should i say 'comma'?), and to me.... it just reads better sometimes when it's there, like it gives... - i'm not dead yet ! Mar 16, 09:15
- Yeah, that's the one that's bugging me most. -- nm - Ender Mar 16, 09:12
It's called the Oxford Comma. It's a common grammatical controversy. -- nm - Beryllium Mar 16, 09:10 1
- (Dropping the comma is hand-in-hand with the belief that "and" is a verbal comma ... if you think of it that way, it makes sense) -- nm - Beryllium Mar 16, 09:11
Agreed. Needs the comma. -- nm - Jelly Mar 16, 09:09

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Tuesday Grammer Poll, Part 2 ... Revenge of the Comma ....

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