I am terrible

jenajjthr · October 2014

Okay, so why did English teachers write red on my papers telling me not to put that comma there when I did? I'm so confused now. Seriously, I'm not strong in the English writing skills, but I always thought it was right to put a comma after the "and."

theartistformerlyknownas · October 2014

jenajjthr said:

Okay, so why did English teachers write red on my papers telling me not to put that comma there when I did? I'm so confused now. Seriously, I'm not strong in the English writing skills, but I always thought it was right to put a comma after the "and."

It's highly debated.

I was also taught not to use it.

wrigleyville · October 2014

jenajjthr said:

Okay, so why did English teachers write red on my papers telling me not to put that comma there when I did? I'm so confused now. Seriously, I'm not strong in the English writing skills, but I always thought it was right to put a comma after the "and."

If you put it after the "and", then it was wrong. It goes before the "and".

If you did put it before the "and" and that was just a typo, then I have no idea. The Oxford Comma isn't used in AP style (i.e. journalism), but it's used in MLA, APA, etc. High school teachers use it as well.

It could be a regional thing too. Are you from the U.S?

theartistformerlyknownas · October 2014

wrigleyville said:

jenajjthr said:

Okay, so why did English teachers write red on my papers telling me not to put that comma there when I did? I'm so confused now. Seriously, I'm not strong in the English writing skills, but I always thought it was right to put a comma after the "and."

If you put it after the "and", then it was wrong. It goes before the "and".

If you did put it before the "and" and that was just a typo, then I have no idea. The Oxford Comma isn't used in AP style (i.e. journalism), but it's used in MLA, APA, etc. High school teachers use it as well.

It could be a regional thing too. Are you from the U.S?

Ah I missed that you said after the and.

My college taught to AP guidelines, so no serial comma. This seriously pissed off all the students I tutored who were taught MLA in high school.

raissyrais · October 2014

Nope I would definitely not like that apostrophe there either. Any way you could have it corrected? Grammar is one of my pet peeves, I can't stand it. I majored in French Litt. and sometimes seeing mistakes like that if French writing gives me as mush aversion as for English. UGH!

lovesclimbing · October 2014

It's also called the serial comma.

Technically, journalists are still allowed to use it, just on rare occasions, like if it's a complicated or long list. Clarity is basically the rule. You would put a comma in "I like to eat chicken and beans, steak and salad, and fish and chips." Because each grouping of two is its own meal. It would be confusing to have "... chicken and beans, steak and salad and fish and chips."

The argument could be made, and this is the argument I use, that even in simple series ("I like chicken, steak and fish") it's confusing by making it sound like you like chicken and you like steak and fish together or steak and fish are types of chicken.

A common sentence used as an example of this is something like "We just saw drunks, Liam and Hannah on the way home," because depending on how you read it, it could either sound like you saw drunks and you saw Liam and you saw Hannah, or it could sound like Liam and Hannah are the drunks you saw.

HeatherKat · October 2014

amelisha · October 2014

I HATE UNNECESSARY APOSTROPHES. So much. Our building managers are terrible for it, and I'm forever getting in the elevator and reading signs like "Party room available for rental's" and "Pool party! Come enjoy burger's and beer's with your neighbour's." Uauauaughghh,

I feel for you, is all I'm saying. And if it were me I'd probably just spend the money to have an identical but properly (un)punctuated one made, honestly. She won't notice, I bet, as she's obviously got a pretty lax attitude towards grammar.

At least it's not a tattoo?

Inkdancer · October 2014

amelisha said:

I HATE UNNECESSARY APOSTROPHES. So much. Our building managers are terrible for it, and I'm forever getting in the elevator and reading signs like "Party room available for rental's" and "Pool party! Come enjoy burger's and beer's with your neighbour's." Uauauaughghh,

I feel for you, is all I'm saying. And if it were me I'd probably just spend the money to have an identical but properly (un)punctuated one made, honestly. She won't notice, I bet, as she's obviously got a pretty lax attitude towards grammar.

At least it's not a tattoo?

If I liked it otherwise, I'd get one. But I am not a fan of enormous brass things.

amelisha · October 2014

Inkdancer said:

amelisha said:

I HATE UNNECESSARY APOSTROPHES. So much. Our building managers are terrible for it, and I'm forever getting in the elevator and reading signs like "Party room available for rental's" and "Pool party! Come enjoy burger's and beer's with your neighbour's." Uauauaughghh,

I feel for you, is all I'm saying. And if it were me I'd probably just spend the money to have an identical but properly (un)punctuated one made, honestly. She won't notice, I bet, as she's obviously got a pretty lax attitude towards grammar.

At least it's not a tattoo?

If I liked it otherwise, I'd get one. But I am not a fan of enormous brass things.

For her feelings' sake though?

hellohkb · October 2014

HeatherKat said:

I was going to post this, I remember this when people bring up the Oxford comma, haha!

No, it's not totally mean to not want to use it. I would he the exact same way!

I am terrible

Re: I am terrible

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