Timeline for Oxford comma with nonessential phrases
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
19 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jun 18, 2019 at 21:49 | answer | added | Conor Henry | timeline score: 1 | |
| Jun 12, 2019 at 0:00 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackEnglish/status/1138596948452229120 | ||
| Jun 11, 2019 at 22:47 | comment | added | Nat | @TheNate "creativity, and -- ultimately -- progress" looks like a winner. | |
| Jun 11, 2019 at 20:24 | history | became hot network question | |||
| Jun 11, 2019 at 14:59 | comment | added | The Nate | I don't know the names of the conventions, but using alternate delimiters is valid. One version I was taught would have you upgrade the Oxford commas to semi colons, there. "...curiosity; creativity; and, ultimately, progress." Another would have you leave the commas off that "ultimately". Yet another would use dashes for it. That is probably what I'd do. "...creativity, and--ultimately--progress." | |
| Jun 11, 2019 at 13:43 | comment | added | GEdgar | If you are uncomfortable with this clash of conventions, you could change something. "stifling curiosity, creativity, and (ultimately) progress." | |
| Jun 11, 2019 at 13:29 | comment | added | Lambie | Of course, with adverbs you need the/a verb to understand the phrase: For example: [They demonstrated] stifling curiosity, creativity and, ultimately, progress. "ultimately" goes with the verb. In this particular case, setting the word "ultimately" off by commas cannot be called use of the Oxford comma. Here's another one: They lacked conventional manners,sensible attitudes and, ironically, a sense of humor. I sincerely doubt any editor would disagree with that. As for Oxford commas,let's do it: They adored apples, oranges, bananas, and, funnily enough, coconuts. | |
| Jun 11, 2019 at 13:26 | history | edited | Lambie | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 5 characters in body
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| Jun 11, 2019 at 13:01 | vote | accept | dwelle | ||
| Jun 11, 2019 at 12:58 | answer | added | TaliesinMerlin | timeline score: 7 | |
| Jun 11, 2019 at 12:52 | comment | added | Edwin Ashworth | As usual, there exists in these areas a point beyond which trying to force a convention to hold (or to pursue an analysis using existing terminology) becomes nonsensical. '... stifling curiosity, creativity, and, ultimately, progress' doesn't conform to the minimalist (subject to reasonable clarity) trend in punctuation nowadays. '... stifling curiosity, creativity, and ultimately progress' looks far better. Even if it doesn't conform to the third law of wiggleuse. | |
| Jun 11, 2019 at 12:40 | comment | added | dwelle | @Toothrot: if it's nonessential then there should be a comma around, no? | |
| Jun 11, 2019 at 12:40 | comment | added | dwelle | @BillJ: you're right. Corrected the question title, body, and tags. | |
| Jun 11, 2019 at 12:37 | comment | added | dwelle | @Robusto: I didn't mean correct as in Correct, I meant in the context of oxford comma style. | |
| Jun 11, 2019 at 12:36 | history | edited | dwelle | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
replaced "clause" with "phrase"
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| Jun 11, 2019 at 12:29 | comment | added | BillJ | I can't see why you think that "ultimately" is a clause. I'd say it was an adverb phrase. | |
| Jun 11, 2019 at 12:25 | review | First posts | |||
| Jun 11, 2019 at 13:08 | |||||
| Jun 11, 2019 at 12:22 | comment | added | Robusto | It is at The New Yorker and other publications. This is a matter of style, and there is no "correct" style. | |
| Jun 11, 2019 at 12:20 | history | asked | dwelle | CC BY-SA 4.0 |