In my original comma rant, I could not find an example from a news article wherein the journalist failed to use a serial comma and therefore made their writing unclear. Well, it only took a couple days, and I found one.
Exhibit A: An Associated Press story about a man who went on a killing spree:
"A man accused of killing four people and wounding four others in a 28-hour rampage told police he had cancer, lamented his family life, said he wished police had shot him and declared he had experienced "a doozy of a day," authorities said in a court document released Tuesday."
As you can see, there is no serial comma after "police had shot him." This leads the reader to think that the police both "shot" and also "declared." Read it again:
"A man...told police he had cancer, lamented his family life, said he wished police had shot him and declared he had experienced "a doozy of a day."
So, he wished police had shot him and also declared his day a doozy? No, that makes no sense. What the writer actually means is:
"A man...told police he had cancer, lamented his family life, said he wished police had shot him, and declared he had experienced "a doozy of a day."
The MAN is the one declaring, not the police. The serial comma makes this clear. The lack of a serial comma makes me want to hang myself.
2 comments:
Before you kill yourself, as someone who worked in newspapers, there is something to clarify. Now, maybe it makes this specific sentence unclear, but the person who did the copy editing on the article was probably just using AP Style (Associated Press). AP Style is a little different. Normally, one would write: "I went to the store and bought lemons, grapes, and apples." Whereas, AP Style indicates you write the same sentence as: "I went to the store and bought lemons, grapes and apples." I write like this at work and everyone tries to correct me. Drives me BANANAS...since I'm apparently into fruit examples right now. Anyway, if you've seen it a lot in newspapers, that's why. Also, I heart you.
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