{"id":17106,"date":"2014-02-06T00:01:25","date_gmt":"2014-02-06T08:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=17106"},"modified":"2014-02-06T00:01:25","modified_gmt":"2014-02-06T08:01:25","slug":"making-friends-trying-to-with-the-dread-serial-comma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/making-friends-trying-to-with-the-dread-serial-comma\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Friends — Trying To — With the Dread Serial Comma"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Barbara<\/a>
Book contract — and the dread serial comma. Photo by Jon Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Barbara Falconer Newhall<\/em><\/p>\n

My book contract says that I\u2019m to deliver my manuscript \u201cin conformity with the provisions in The<\/em> Chicago Manual of Style<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

That means that right now I’m finally going head-to-head with the serial comma.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been avoiding this showdown for decades. I\u2019m a journalist. The serial comma is anathema to the space-saving habits of newspaper reporters and their bible, \u201cThe Associated Press Stylebook.\u201d (Those quotation marks are AP style, btw. Chicago style would be The Associated Press Stylebook<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

The AP Stylebook<\/em> is very clear about those useless serial commas. \u201cDo not put a comma before the conjunction in a simple series,\u201d it commands. Make it: \u201cThe flag is red, white and blue.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dread Serial Comma<\/strong><\/h5>\n

\u201cThe Chicago Manual of Style,\u201d er, The Chicago Manual of Style<\/em> takes exactly the opposite tack: \u201cWhen a conjunction joins the last two elements in a series of three or more, a comma . . . should appear before the conjunction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chicago illustrates this dictum with a, to my mind, somewhat padded-out example: \u201cShe took a photograph of her parents, the president, and the vice president.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
An “AP Stylebook” from my Oakland Tribune days. (Chicago style: An AP Stylebook<\/em> from my Oakland Tribune<\/em> days.)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

That extra comma sitting there right in front of that “and” looks just weird to me. But a contract is a contract, and apparently a book isn\u2019t a book without a generous sprinkling of serial commas.<\/p>\n

And I want my book to look like a book.<\/p>\n

Which is why I\u2019ve spent the past four days going over my manuscript with a fine-toothed comb, looking for absentee commas.<\/p>\n

So far I\u2019ve located eighty-eight of them in my 65,000-word manuscript.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve punched in all eighty-eight, and the folks I’ve interviewed for Wrestling with God<\/em><\/a>\u2014people who have generously shared their spiritual exploits with me\u2014are now fully clothed in the dread serial comma. To wit:<\/p>\n

The Rev. Elizabeth Felts describes holding her stillborn son: \u201cHe was eleven inches long, just under a pound, and perfectly formed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mormon Stace Hall describes his two years as a young missionary: \u201cMale missionaries wear a suit every day, and if it\u2019s hot, just a shirt, tie, and dress pants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Savitri Hari speaks of her mother, pregnant and widowed at age 16: \u201cA normal mother wears the colorful saris, the jewelry, and the red dot, the bindi<\/em>, on her forehead . . . a widow is denied all that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jewish mortician Susan Lefelstein says of caring for the dead: \u201cThe Jewish religion prescribes a format for the prayers, for when to wash, how to wash, and what clothing to put on.\u201d<\/p>\n

World War II airman Robert Tharratt describes being shot down over Germany: \u201cThe radio operator had bailed out, the tail gunner was gone, and the pilot was getting ready to go out the nose hatch.\u201d<\/p>\n

My book contract also states\u2014emphatically, in bold-face type\u2014that my manuscript shall be delivered \u201con or about February 15, 2014<\/strong>.\u201d That\u2019s less than two weeks away.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m pretty sure there are lots more truant serial commas out there, waiting to be wrestled into my manuscript. I better get to work. Ciao.<\/p>\n

Want to hear more from the Grammar Geek? Go to “Splitting the Infinitive — How to Boldly Go There.”<\/a>\u00a0 If you’d like to read more about my rocky spiritual journey, see “Impermanence — Everything Changes and So Can I.”<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Barbara<\/a><\/p>\n

My book contract says that I\u2019m to deliver my book manuscript \u201cin conformity with the provisions in ‘The Chicago Manual of Style.’\u201d That means that, at long last, I’m finally going head-to-head with the serial comma. Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,52],"tags":[1156,1157,34,1158,220,82,166,172,1159,1160,53,1161,69],"class_list":["post-17106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-on-writing-reading","category-the-writing-room","tag-ap-stylebook","tag-chicago-manual-of-style","tag-dont-miss","tag-elizabeth-felts","tag-grammar-geek","tag-on-the-funny-side","tag-robert-tharratt","tag-savitri-hari","tag-serial-comma","tag-stace-hall","tag-wrestling-with-god","tag-writing-room","tag-writing-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}