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Serial Commas, Ellipses, And Em-Dashes
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Serial Commas: There is much confusion over [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] the proper use of serial commas. It is generally accepted in today's writing to include the final serial comma before the conjunction and the [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] final word or phase in the series. For instance:
"My favorite colors are purple, yellow, and pink."
"I like to get up early, walk on the beach, and collect shells."
This rule is cited in Chicago Manual of Style and The Gregg Reference Manual. The purpose of including this final comma is for clarity and to give each word [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] or phrase equal weight in the sentence. There is a story which illustrates this tenet.
A man wrote a will leaving his estate to his three children, "Richard, John and William" (note the absence [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] of the final serial comma.) The judge interpreted this will to divide the man's estate [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] leaving half to Richard and the other half (or one-quarter each) to John and William. Their father intended to divide his estate into thirds; however, the absence of the final serial comma gave John and William together the same [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] weight as Richard. Had there been a comma included before the "and," each of the sons would have received a third of their [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] father's estate.
Ellipses are another punctuation riddle with different sources touting the correct use of ellipses. Generally speaking, there are two ways to insert ellipses into sentences. The first is preferred, using the automatic [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] symbol insert key from a computer word-processing program. This is found under "Insert" or "Symbol" selections from the top tool bar. A search under the Help key will also locate this symbol. Ellipses are used to indicate that a sentence is left incomplete and unended; it suggests a thought abruptly stopped.
Many experts advocate including a space before and after the inserted ellipses; others do not. The other way to insert ellipses is by using the space bar and periods from the keyboard in this way: space, dot, space, dot, space, dot, space. If you are not comfortable using the automatic word-processing function, feel free to use the alternative hand-inserted method.
The important consideration [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] is to be consistent [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] throughout your document. If the ellipse ends a sentence, do not add a final period; however, you can include an exclamation [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] point or question mark after the ellipse.
Em-Dash: The use of [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] double-hyphen marks was common [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] when typewriters were the sole source of mechanized communication. These marks were used to indicate emphasis or weighted pause in a sentence. An em-dash is the width of a capital "M," and is also automatically inserted from the Symbol choice from the word processing tool bar. There are no spaces inserted either before or after an em-dash. With the advent of computer word processing systems, it is always preferred to [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] use an em-dash instead of a double hyphen.
Submitted : 2007-04-22 22:23:28Word Count : 481Popularity: 72Tags: writing, poetry, stories, authors, submission, writersrelief, services, correction, proofreading