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On Monday,  5 May 2003 at 21:53:00 -0500, Frederick Bruckman wrote:
> 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.

Commas shouldn't be omitted if they give rise to ambiguity, of
course.  But to quote the Commonwealth Style Guide:

  6.29  The modern tendency is to use no more commas than are essential
        for clarity, although some writers use them more freely than
        others.

Greg
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