Ah, the Oxford comma: some love it, some hate it. I use it, but I have no problem dropping it when required by a style guide. However, there are some instances when the Oxford comma is indeed needed for clarity: (From blogher.com: Gifts for Grammar Geeks.)
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Category Archives: punctuation
Copy Editing Commandment #4: Thou Shalt Be Consistent
Maintaining consistency throughout a text is a basic editing skill. The list of items to keep consistent is long and varied: capitalized words (Moon or moon, for example) numbers (when to use figures, when to use words, how to treat dates, times, etc.) abbreviations (when to use them, how to punctuate them, what articles to… Continue Reading
Rob Ford Sweats the Big Stuff; Copy Editors Sweat the Small Stuff
I wasn’t going to do it, but as a Torontonian it’s about time I blogged (however tangentially!) about our fearless — or should I say feckless — mayor. Yeah, that’s a pretty tame way of describing him. He has a lot to deal with, and I wish him luck. In today’s National Post, The Blatch… Continue Reading
What Grammar Girl Taught Me Today or, How I Learned to Stop Furrowing and Love the Exclamation Bomb
Grammar Girl is a great resource for anyone who wants to improve their writing. She deftly answers pressing punctuation, grammar, and usage questions after doing plenty of supporting research. No persnickety pedant, she keeps her advice “quick and dirty,” giving her audience the tools they need to improve their writing. One of my pet peeves… Continue Reading
The Apostrophe Catastrophe
The apostrophe is everywhere lately — literally. I’ve complained before about its incorrect usage, and I’m certainly not alone. In yesterday’s Post, Robert Fulford writes about the misunderstood apostrophe, and he describes vigilante editors who take it upon themselves to make corrections to all the signs with the added apostrophes: Cd’s, Record’s, Dvd’s! The apostrophe… Continue Reading
Make A(n En) Dash
I’m busy getting my resumé sent out. I laugh out loud sometimes when I’m tailoring my resumé to specific companies and job ads — the use of key words is so transparent. But it’s time for a quick editing lesson. I was reading an article by former NDP leader Jim Broadbent yesterday, when I came… Continue Reading
The Doo-doo on Doo’s for Dogs
I spoke with the owner of Doo’s for Dogs today, and she said that Doo is indeed short for hairdo. The dog logo was created by a designer and is based on a photo of the owner’s dog. The owner said she and the designer together agreed on the end result. My sense is that,… Continue Reading
Sign Exposé Teaser
I continue to work on my sign exposé. This small business sign in my neighbourhood caught my attention: This is a classic misuse of the apostrophe — or is it? Maybe the owner’s name is, say, Dooley, and the name of the business is a clever take on that — you know, it’s Doo’s business… Continue Reading
Comma Use with Coordinate and Noncoordinate Adjectives
Here’s a punctuation problem that used to trip me up: When do you use commas between adjectives in a list? Consider the following examples: ♦Her heart skipped a beat when she saw the crisp red, white, and blue flag whipping in the wind. ♦When he served the rich chocolate layer cake for breakfast, I knew… Continue Reading
For Sale: Cd’s from the 80’s & 90’s
Everyone gets a kick out of wacky signs. From Leno to Lynne Truss, lots of folks have entertained us with signage that is confusing, misleading, or just plain wrong. The title of this post shows a common mistake seen on signs: the use of an apostrophe s where just an s is correct (Cds from… Continue Reading