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  EDline Vol. 8, no. 47   (28 April 2003)

  Editorial mailing list (digest version)
  Published by the Electric Editors
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  Contents:

         Q & A
  [2xz]  The Oxford comma

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---[2]-- Q & A --------------------------------------------------

         Date: Mon, 28 April 2003
         From: Steve Rickaby, srickaby@wordmongers.demon.co.uk

Can anyone cite me a reference that deprecates the Oxford (or
'serial') comma?


         ------------------------
         Date: Mon, 28 April 2003
         From: Nick Hudson, ur015429@a1.com.au

I'm not sure whether this 'deprecates' powerfully enough for you,
but here goes:

  The only question is whether there should be an extra comma,
  before the and/or, as here:

    The flag is in three colours: red, white, and blue.

  Some house styles (including that of Oxford University Press)
  require the extra comma. I prefer to leave it out. We don't
  need it when there are only two items (The flag is in two
  colours: white and blue). It is only needed when there are
  items which are not separated by an and. (We often use a slight
  pause in speech for the same purpose.) Anyway, the editors at
  OUP are tolerant, and they let me do it my way, even pointing
  out if I have accidentally done it their way.

If you are wanting to prove a point, it has the merit that it
comes from a book published by the OUP, the entry on 'lists' in
my own Modern Australian Usage. The OUP editors were so gracious
about it that I think that they no longer cherish the serial
comma with the passion they once did.


         ------------------------
         Date: Mon, 28 April 2003
         From: Steve Rickaby, srickaby@wordmongers.demon.co.uk

Nick Hudson wrote:

> I'm not sure whether this 'deprecates' powerfully enough for
> you, but here goes:

Thank you for this: it is precisely the sort of thing I need. I
am editing material written in English by Germans, and they make
me justify every grammatical point, especially those that deviate
from the way in which they were taught that English 'must be' :-(


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