RE: pw_text_cs, pw_text_nl & couple of suggestions

[Jake O. <ja...@or...>]

OK, just my two cents on the matter of the commas.

Personally, I avoid using the trailing/serial/final comma. Newspapers
(if they're written right) will ALWAYS avoid them. Why? The Associated
Press Stylebook says to avoid them. I've seen English teachers violently
debate it, as well. My preference: avoid them. It makes the list
cleaner, and there's already an overuse of commas by folks who don't
know how to use them properly (in my opinion). Punctuation in general is
just over-rated <hehe>.

we should just all write our sentences like this completely omitting all
important valuable and relevant punctuation marks

;-)

OK, I'm done being a brat -- I'm like this on Fridays :-).

-Jake
-Speaking the Mother Tongue as Well -- At least the Americanized Version
of It

-----Original Message-----
From: php...@li...
[mailto:php...@li...] On Behalf Of James
McMurry
Sent: Friday, September 27, 2002 1:42 PM
To: php...@li...
Subject: Re: pw_text_cs, pw_text_nl & couple of suggestions


Traditionally, you use a trailing comma to separate all the items in a 
series.  This is preferred by most academic style guides and editors.

It's generally accepted that you have the option to omit the final comma

before the "and" (or other conjunction) if the list is simple.  You'd do

this to help the list flow better, but only if you can obviously
preserve 
the meaning of the sentence.  I believe that newspapers do this fairly
often.

However, it's *always* correct to use the comma before the last item in
the 
series, and it's sometimes required to do so to make the meaning clear.

If you don't have total control of the items in the list (which you
don't in 
this programming scenario), it's safest to include the comma before the 
conjunction.  I think what you have for 'list_sentences_final_and' is
correct.

Speaking the mother tongue,
JM


Martin Geisler wrote:

>>   $this->strings['list_sentences_final_and'] = ', and ';
>>                                                  ^^^^^^^^^^^ Here
> 
> 
> Are you thinking at the comma before the final 'and'? Or is it
> something else? If it's about the final comma, then that's how my
> teacher taught me to write a list in English - perhaps someone who
> has English as their mother tongue could comment on this?



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