Thursday, February 18, 2016
Comma Heterodoxy
In my last post I wrote:
A. “This is an ingenious, and, after a bit of thought, plausible, justification.”
An alternative is:
B. “This is an ingenious, and after a bit of thought plausible, justification.”
The conventional punctuation would be, I think,
C. “This is an ingenious, and, after a bit of thought, plausible justification.”
or
D. “This is an ingenious and, after a bit of thought, plausible justification.”
Which is best? I like A and B because they follow the spoken rhythm better, with a preference for B now that I've thought about it longer. I'm not sure about whether there should be a comma after "ingenious". Any thoughts?
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/law_econ/2016/02/comma-unorthodoxy.html
It should be D if you believe that the sentence should be perfectly readable without the clause inserted. Or saying it the opposite way, if you take the clause out you should be able to read the sentence as is. There might be other grammar rules I have not considered. That is just my, non legal, opinion.
Posted by: cw | Apr 13, 2016 11:53:19 PM