Brevity by Dan Thompson for March 11, 2013

Who says they’re superfluous?

Get back to work, you!

No more breaks and omissions…

msoedwards’ previous comment wasn’t showing even after I posted…. another GoComics time lapse….

But yeah, I agree. I’ve never heard that!

And I too thought the shirt might mean that the OED or another Oxford reference work had declared some superfluous….

But certainly not HERE

alas, drinking again. he’s gone so dark since the proofreader purge. hi, shine, forgot to greet you at the sarkosy inkydink!

i thk its cuz we typ like this nw

400 years of proper English grammar out the window in less than a decade….

Grammar’s just grampaw’s wife these days.

The Oxford comma precedes “and” in a list of three or more items, as in “Tom, Dick, and Harry”. According to MS Word, one may either use it or not, but should be consistent in any one document.

They don’t have a lot in comma but she could make a postrophe happy . . . ☻

A lot of people have no comma sense these days.

Without the (now optional, not obsolete) Oxford comma, we write things like:

“I am a grammarian, writer and critic.”

which is (to my mind) less clear than “I am a grammarian, writer, and critic.” As long as Oxford never makes the literal meaning of “literally” obsolete, I suppose I will survive. I will grumble, reminisce and complain; but I will survive.

They’ll have to pry my Oxford comma from my dead, non-working keyboard.

She could do worse, at least he’s punctual.

http://oxforddictionaries.com/words/apostrophe

@Penny Robinson Fan Club: I think the “I’ve” and “we’ve” being spoken by the “character” in the comic do have an apostrophe, but are very small. Go back to the March 8 comic and you can see that they are typically this small in Brevity’s lettering. http://www.gocomics.com/brevity/2013/03/08

People have always used superfluous apostrophes. (e.g. Apple’s for sale), but to my knowledge there is no initiative to “contract” the usage of apostrophes for contractions and possessives.

JMHO, but I think the character is a comma and the the comic is referring to the commas that precedes the “and” in a series of three or more. (like Ronald Davis cited). e.g. “The three musketeers were Athos, Porthos, and Aramis”

Could be either a comma or an apostrophe. But I think “both” because he says “we’ve become superfluous”. With the amount of texting and careless e-writing today, there are many times when both are used wrongly – thus becoming unnecessary except for technical writings. Right write, Susan?

An apostrophe is just a comma that worked its wayup to the top.

Comma to the top!

I was trained… blue-penciled, red-circled, and lectured…. NEVER to put an apostrophe before “and” unless it’s to separate a clause from the rest of the sentence.

I proofread my writing, even here, and remove such unnecessary apostrophication (Take THAT, Webster’s!) before printing or posting.

I could have left it?NOW they tell me.

DISCLAIMER:The apostrophe before “and” in ¶ 2 separates a clause and IS necessary.

Baldy…. you always write right!

Hi Nazz! S’OK, you did now.

But… sniffle…. Varnes doesn’t say “hi” to me any more….

X! …. yes!

Itapostrophes always a pleasure…though you havenapostrophet given me many chances lately.

Good to see you.

Comma ♫ comma comma ♫ comma Comma chameleon… ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ You come ♫ ♪ and go-o-o… ♪You come ♪ and go. ♫

What does he mean, superfluous? He has plenty of jobs in improperly formed plurals!! Or plural’s!!

Pschearer….

LOL…I’ve posted this a few times on a couple of forums, in a general way…

Maybe it’s time again….

If you actually want to reach me…. CLICK HERE.

Eats, Shoots, and Leaves: The best book on punctuation around.