I’m a copy editor. You can imagine my feelings on the subject. We need standards and rules in language; that’s how we keep from devolving into meaningless babble. So I guess it bothers me just the right amount.
@lisagd22 I sympathize. I edit a club’s newsletter and I’ve edited other club’s newsletters on and off for 40 years. You’re absolutely right: We need standards and rules in language! I keep a copy if the Associated Press Style Guide and the Chicago Manual of Style within arm’s reach of my desk. (And I don’t care what either of them say: you’ll have to pry my Oxford commas from my cold, dead hands!)
@ItalianScallion I feel the same about Oxford commas. My current client uses the AP Style Guide, and I’m not a happy camper. No Oxford comma! No en dash! It’s an abomination!
@lisagd22 Yeah, I usually follow the AP Style Guide when editing the newsletter of a group I’m in, but they got it wrong with the Oxford comma! Hey, at least the Guide doesn’t support the New York Times’ affectation of putting periods after each letter of an initialism like FBI or IBM. (Didn’t we stop doing that arounbd 75 years ago?)
@lisagd22 Agreed! I also find it distracting when I’m reading an article and–because it’s not common these days except for the NY Times and a very few others–come across an initialism with periods. Isn’t that just what you don’t want to do to your readers?
I’m a copy editor. You can imagine my feelings on the subject. We need standards and rules in language; that’s how we keep from devolving into meaningless babble. So I guess it bothers me just the right amount.
@lisagd22 I sympathize. I edit a club’s newsletter and I’ve edited other club’s newsletters on and off for 40 years. You’re absolutely right: We need standards and rules in language! I keep a copy if the Associated Press Style Guide and the Chicago Manual of Style within arm’s reach of my desk. (And I don’t care what either of them say: you’ll have to pry my Oxford commas from my cold, dead hands!)
@ItalianScallion @lisagd22
@ItalianScallion I feel the same about Oxford commas. My current client uses the AP Style Guide, and I’m not a happy camper. No Oxford comma! No en dash! It’s an abomination!
@ItalianScallion @lisagd22 Comma, comma, comma, comma, chameleon. They come and go, they come and go oooh oh.
KuoH
@ItalianScallion @kuoh
@lisagd22 Yeah, I usually follow the AP Style Guide when editing the newsletter of a group I’m in, but they got it wrong with the Oxford comma! Hey, at least the Guide doesn’t support the New York Times’ affectation of putting periods after each letter of an initialism like FBI or IBM.
(Didn’t we stop doing that arounbd 75 years ago?)
@ItalianScallion It’s such a pain to type those periods, and it’s not especially easy to read the initialism or acronym with them in there.
@lisagd22 Agreed! I also find it distracting when I’m reading an article and–because it’s not common these days except for the NY Times and a very few others–come across an initialism with periods. Isn’t that just what you don’t want to do to your readers?