ivyology | (no subject)

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A poll about grammar! The questions are not biased in the least. And I will probably be the only one to bother filling it out, as I'm the only one with ridiculously strong feelings on the subject. See how that doesn't stop me.

[Poll #1327281]

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How about Choice D: "Sometimes I use it, sometimes I don't. It depends on my mood and how it looks in the sentence. And although I tend to be nit-picky about grammar, even I am not that judgemental."

Or something like that.

What about this post would make you think reason and rationality ever entered the equation? :)

I was taught that either way is acceptable as long as you are consistent. That said, I'm a wildly inconsistent Choice D person.

I'm really cavalier about the rules of grammar, especially punctuation. My philosophy is that if a persnickity reader wants to discount my ideas because of a missing or misplaced comma here or there, then so be it.

Your logic has no place here. :(

I was taught to always use it, and I'm actually surprised that you weren't - I was under the impression that it used to be a much firmer rule, at least outside of print journalism and the AP Stylebook.

When I was in school, they didn't talk much about commas. They were too busy teaching us about liters and kilometers and breathlessly warning us that we'd better learn it because, "America will be completely Metric by 1980!"

I've always used it! Just because it didn't feel right to leave the last word in a list hanging without a comma. :(

I KNEW I LIKED YOU. :D

I agree! And when it's missing, it sounds wrong when I hear it in my brainvoice. :(

i vote that i am not wrong! i also vote that you're not wrong either. just as there's no one rule for the possessive 's', e.g. business' or business's (i prefer the unencumbered apostrophe, myself), there's no one rule for the oxford comma. i use it when its absence would create ambiguity or cause the last word or phrase in a list to be construed with a preposition in the preceding phrase. other than that, its just extraneous punctuation.

I was with you until you deemed it extraneous. Heresy! :P

MWAHAHAHA!

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