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07-17-2006, 01:40 PM | #61 |
erika
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: "the high up north"
Posts: 6,127
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I've read E,S&L. Unless I'm mistaken, it doesn't say you put a space before a full stop. Nor does anything else I've read.
Though from first grade onwards, I've been taught that the comma before the 'and' is completely optional. I personally put it there because it seems like it should be there to me, but I think not putting it there is just as correct.
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07-18-2006, 07:31 AM | #62 | |
The future is unwritten
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 71,105
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Yeah, I was taught the comma before the and was optional, you just had to be consistent.
Quote:
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07-18-2006, 07:44 AM | #63 |
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Ibram , I do not put a space before a full stop when I am writing with a pen . I just do it when I am typing on a machine . As I have already explained , I have never learnt how to type formally . It is still quite a difficult exercise for me . I think because it is difficult , I have gone back in my head to being a little girl learning how to write with a quill . When we learnt , we were told to leave a space before the full stop , to avoid smudging . What I do is a sort of throwback , if you like . I must stop it . Atavistic spaces .
About the comma ; you are right , and wrong at the same time . There is no static rule , for the comma is not a static entity . It can be used as a breathing device , and it can also be used semantically . When you say 'I like cats and dogs' , you do not need an extra breath , unless you are a serious asthmatic . However , you may need an extra breath after reciting the list of all the animals in Noah's Ark . You would put a comma before the final 'and' in the latter case . Now , lets talk about cats and dogs in another way . We are talking about semantics i.e. implicit meaning now . We are not talking about lists any more : 'Cats , and dogs , just lurv Pussymunch croquettes !' The implication in the above sentence is that you may be surprised to know that dogs too love this particular brand of catfood . The comma has helped us to understand the idea our interlocutor wishes to convey . The comma is all about fine-tuning . |
07-18-2006, 07:47 AM | #64 |
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And now I have bored everyone into a coma .
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07-18-2006, 09:21 AM | #65 |
Why, you're a regular Alfred E Einstein, ain't ya?
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 21,206
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A comma coma?
Not common!
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07-18-2006, 10:08 AM | #66 |
Wearing her bitch boots
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Floriduh
Posts: 1,181
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I know the proper format to use when writing, but often, what I am trying to convey seems too dry and unemotional when written correctly. I prefer to write the way I speak, with pauses and interjections in addition to as much personal expression as I can work into the words.
My writing may not win any grammar or punctuation awards, but I get my point across just fine, thank ya very much . Stormie
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07-18-2006, 10:17 AM | #67 |
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Well , yes of course , Stormieweather . I belong to the descriptive school of linguistics myself . I leave the prescriptions to the doctors . That said , the describers always start getting prescriptive after a while .
And then we churn it all up again . I love it . It means that I have job-security . |
07-18-2006, 11:16 AM | #68 |
Snowflake
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Dystopia
Posts: 13,136
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I prefer the Oxford Comma [Red, White, and Blue] because it conforms to the original intent of punctuation: a "musical notation" for the spoken word.
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****************** There's a level of facility that everyone needs to accomplish, and from there it's a matter of deciding for yourself how important ultra-facility is to your expression. ... I found, like Joseph Campbell said, if you just follow whatever gives you a little joy or excitement or awe, then you're on the right track. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Terry Bozzio |
07-18-2006, 11:34 AM | #69 | |
Snowflake
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Dystopia
Posts: 13,136
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Quote:
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****************** There's a level of facility that everyone needs to accomplish, and from there it's a matter of deciding for yourself how important ultra-facility is to your expression. ... I found, like Joseph Campbell said, if you just follow whatever gives you a little joy or excitement or awe, then you're on the right track. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Terry Bozzio |
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07-18-2006, 01:10 PM | #70 | |
in the Hour of Scampering
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Jeffersonville PA (15 mi NW of Philadelphia)
Posts: 4,060
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Quote:
("Rectum!? It nearly killed 'em!") Forgetting not the difference betwen a cat and a comma...
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"Neither can his Mind be thought to be in Tune,whose words do jarre; nor his reason In frame, whose sentence is preposterous..." |
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07-18-2006, 01:16 PM | #71 |
Day Tripper
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Silicon Valley
Posts: 784
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This whole dot-comma discussion is hilarious because of the big fight I had with my sales partner. We were at the point of not trusting each other, I kept him too long w/o firing him, and we had some stupid arguments. Finally, I listened to my business advisors and fired the sales guy (who sold nothing in two years).
One of my advisors calls that incident the dot-comma bust.
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07-18-2006, 01:37 PM | #72 |
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Incredible how a colon can entrail so much .....
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07-19-2006, 01:41 PM | #73 |
Banned - Self Imposed
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,847
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I read this whole post, for some unknown reason and have just one question - Buddog, does this post-it note of yours have a point???
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07-19-2006, 03:40 PM | #74 | |
Encroaching on your decrees
Join Date: Feb 2004
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Quote:
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07-19-2006, 10:37 PM | #75 |
Non-Newbie Sort
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Australia
Posts: 6
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interestingly in primary school, the only place where grammar seems to matter these days, i was taught to NEVER use a comma before 'and'. i always feel rebellious if i write 'red, white, and blue' and it always looks wrong to me...
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