On Mon, 5 May 2003, Andrew Brown wrote:

> >I dedicate this book to my parents, Ayn Rand and God.
>
> i think this is a bit ambiguous either way.  to add the comma would
> make it:
>
> 	I dedicate this book to my parents, Ayn Rand, and God.
>
> ie, a list, but to replace the comma would give:
>
> 	I dedicate this book to my parents: Ayn Rand and God.
>
> which names your parents.  a single comma just strikes me as awkward
> for both possible interpretations.

Duh. The point of the example is to demonstrate why you need the
second comma (unless you really are JC's half-brother).

I think the modern "Business" style of leaving out commas everywhere,
even for appositive clauses and complete clauses, is simply horrible.
It only works if you already know exactly what position the writer
takes, in which case he would have done just as well to write nothing
at all. Such "style" has no place in scientific and technical discourse.

Frederick