Section: English

INFORMATIONAL TEXT

1. The comma as we know it was invented by Aldo Manuzio, a printer working in Venice, circa 1500. It was intended to prevent confusion by separating things. In the Greek, komma means “something cut off,” a segment.  (Aldo was printing Greek classics during the High Renaissance.  The comma was a Renaissance invention.)  As the comma proliferated, it started generating confusion.  Basically, there are two schools of thought: One plays by ear, using the comma to mark a pause, like dynamics in music; if you were 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 tense and kind of silly, like the argument among theologians about how many angels can 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?

2. Even something as ostensibly simple as the serial comma can arouse strong feelings. The serial comma is the one before “and” in a series of three of more things.  With 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.  Also, I’m lazy, and I find it easier to use the serial comma consistently rather than stop every time I come to a series and register whether or not the comma before the “and’ preceding the last item is actually preventing ambiguity.  But pressed to come up with an example of a series that was unambiguous without the serial comma I couldn’t think of a good one.  An ambiguous series proved so elusive that I wondered whether perhaps we could do without the serial comma after all.  In my office, this is heresy, but I will say it anyway and risk being shunned in the elevator:  Isn’t the “and” sufficient?  After all, that’s what the other commas in a series stand for:  “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!”  A comma preceding “and” is redundant.  I was at risk of becoming a comma apostate. 

3. Fortunately, the Internet is busy with examples of series that are absurd without the serial comma:

4. “We invited the strippers, J.F.K. and Stalin.” (This has been illustrated online, and formed the basis of a poll:  which stripper had the better outfit, J.F.K. or Stalin?)   

5. “This book is dedicated to my parents, Ayn Rand and God.”

6. And there was the county-and-Western singer who was joined onstage by his two ex-wives, Kris Kristofferson and Waylon Jennings.

7. 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 where it’s not.  Many newspapers, both American and British, do not use the serial comma, which underscores the idea that the news is meant to be read fast, in the dead-tree version 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 coming when the news-fee-style three dots (ellipsis) between items, like the eternal ribbon of news circling the building at One Time Square, will dominate, and all text will look like Céline.  Certainly advertising – billboards, road signs, neon – repels punctuation.  Leaving out the serial comma saves time and space.  The editors of Webster’s Third saved eighty pages by cutting down on commas.

At the same time it is informative, this article may be said to have a(n) ___ tone.