Between You & Me by Mary Norris.

Some thoughts on the humble comma, from long-t

ime New Yorker proofreader Mary Norris:
The comma was refined by Aldo Manuzio, a printer working in Venice, circa 1490.
It was intended to prevent confusion by separating things. In the Greek, komma m
eans 'something cut off,' a segment. (Aldo was printing Greek classics during th
e High Renaissance. The comma flourished during the Renaissance.) As the comma p
roliferated, it started generating confusion. Basically, there are two schools o
f
thought: One
plays by ear, using the comma to mark a pause, like dynamics in music; if you we
re reading aloud, the comma would suggest when to take a breath. The other uses
punctuation to clarify the meaning of a sentence by illuminating its underlying
structure. Each school believes that the other gets carried away. It can be tens
e and kind of silly, like the argument among theologians about how many angels c
an fit on the head of a pin. How many commas can fit into a sentence by Herman
Melville?
Or, closer to
home, into a sentence from The New Yorker?
Aldus Manutius
"Even something as ostensibly simple as the serial comma can arouse strong feeli
ngs.
The serial comma is the one before 'and' in a series of three or more things. Wi
th the serial comma: My favorite cereals are Cheerios, Raisin Bran, and Shredded
Wheat.
Without the serial comma: I used to like Kix, Trix and Wheat Chex. Proponents of
the serial comma say that it is preferable because it prevents ambiguity, and
I'll go along with that. ... [But] isn't the 'and' sufficient? After all, that's
what the other commas in a series stand for: 'Lions and tigers and bears, oh m
y!' A comma preceding 'and' is redundant. ...
"Fortunately, the Internet is busy with examples of series that are absurd witho
ut the serial comma:
We invited the strippers, JFK and Stalin.' ...
This book is dedicated to my parents, Ayn Rand and God'
"And there was the country-and-western singer who 'was joined by his two ex-wive
s, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings.'
"The bottom line is to choose one and be consistent and try not to make a moral
issue out of it. Or is it? Maybe it's better to judge each series on its merits,
applying the serial comma where it's needed and suppressing it where it's not.
Many newspapers, both American and British, do not use the serial comma, which u
nderscores the idea that the news is meant to be read fast, in the dead-tree ver
sion or on the screen, because it's not news for long. It's ephemeral. Print -or, rather, text -- should be streamlined and unencumbered. Maybe the day is co
ming when the newsfeed-style three dots (ellipsis) between items, like the etern
al ribbon of news circling the building at One Times Square or the CNN crawl, wi
ll dominate, and all text will look like Celine. Certainly advertising -- billbo
ards, road signs, neon
-- repels punctuation. Leaving out the serial comma saves time and space. The ed
itors of Webster's Third saved eighty pages by cutting down on commas.
"But suppose you're not in a hurry. Suppose you move your lips when you read, or
pronounce every word aloud in your head, and you're reading a Victorian novel
or a history of Venice. You have plenty of time to crunch commas. If I worked fo
r a publication that did not use the serial comma, I would adjust -- convert fr
om orthodox to reform -- but for now I remain loyal to the serial comma, because
it actually does sometimes prevent ambiguity and because I've gotten used to t

he way it looks.
It gives starch to the prose, and can be very effective. If a sentence were a pi
cket fence, the serial commas would be posts at regular intervals."
Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen
Author: Mary Norris
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Copyright 2015 by Mary Norris
Pages 92-95
If you wish to read further: Buy Now
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