Q. I totally agree with Chicago’s use of the serial comma. However, I am creating a style guide for a
company that does not use the serial comma. For the sake of consistency, I am considering stating in the guide that the serial
comma is not to be used at all (yikes!). My question is: Is it better to be consistent (and not use the serial comma at all)
OR to add in the serial comma ONLY when it is necessary to prevent ambiguity? I wish that I could just DEMAND the use of the
serial comma at all times, but alas, I am just a lowly intern. Thanks a lot for your help!
A. Well, if you don’t allow it at all, you will at times be stuck with situations like the following hypothetical
dedication page that our managing editor likes to cite: “With gratitude to my parents, Mother Teresa
and the pope.” (Maybe that example will help you change your company’s policy.)
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. What is a “restrictive” appositive? I have read chapters 5 and 6, but I do not understand the difference between the two types of examples, distinguishing the use of commas by this term. Please advise . . . my client wants to know the “why” behind my editorial source.
A. “Restrictive” appositives cannot be removed from a sentence without obscuring the identity of the word or phrase that the appositive is intended to identify. Take the following two sentences:
My cat Philby is fat. [I have two cats.]
My cat, Philby, is fat. [I have one cat.]
Note the similarities; if you study the two sentences closely, you will see that they are in fact identical—except for the commas. The problem is that if you take “Philby” away from the first sentence—whereas you know I have two cats—you’d have no way of knowing, assuming no additional context, which of my two cats I was talking about. If you take “Philby” away from the second sentence—knowing that I have just one cat—you’d still know it’s Philby that has the weight problem. The commas serve to set off what is essentially ancillary—or nonrestrictive—information.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Please help clarify a debate over what I see as a groundless but persistent carryover from high-school English classes: the
comma-before-too “rule.” The rule goes something like this: When “too”
is used in the sense of “also,” use a comma before and after “too”
in the middle of a sentence and a comma before “too” at the end of a sentence.
I am editing a work of fiction in which the author has rigidly applied the rule. I have just as rigidly deleted the commas.
My managing editor believes that a comma is needed when “too” refers to an item
in a list and has the sense of “in addition” (e.g., “I like
apples and bananas, too.”), but she would omit the comma when “too”
refers to the subject of the sentence (e.g., “Oh, you like apples and bananas? I like apples and bananas
too.”). My managing editor’s rule helps make a useful distinction, but I am still
wondering whether the comma is ever grammatically justified.
A. A comma can do some work in making the meaning of a sentence clear, but to claim two different meanings for I like apples and bananas too with and without a comma before too puts too much pressure on the comma. Out of context, neither version would be perfectly clear. To make the different meanings more apparent, short of additional context, you’d have to be more explicit:
I, too, like apples and bananas.
I like not only apples but bananas too.
Use commas with too only when you want to emphasize an abrupt change of thought:
He didn’t know at first what hit him, but then, too, he hadn’t ever walked in a field strewn with garden rakes.
In most other cases, commas with this short adverb are unnecessary (an exception being sentences that begin with too—in the sense of also—a construction some writers would avoid as being too awkward).
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. If you say “so-and-so is vice president, finance, of such and such,” should there
be a comma after “finance”? My boss and I are in disagreement. I think there should
be a comma but she says no. I can’t find a specific reference to this anywhere, though.
A. Anything that is set off from all or part of a sentence requires two commas, unless the word or phrase being set off is at
the beginning or end of the sentence, in which case only one comma is required. Some examples:
January 4, 1844, was a day like any other.
The suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland, eventually overlap with those of Washington, DC.
The University of California, Berkeley, has a beautiful campus.
Your options are as follows, in order of preference:
So and so is vice president, finance, of such and such . . .
So and so is vice president–finance of such and such . . .
So and so is vice president (finance) of such and such . . .
I would not go so far as to write “vice president finance of such and such.”
Note the en dash in the second example (–); an en dash is midway in length between a hyphen (-) and
an em dash (—) and can join a modifier (in this case “finance”)
to an open compound (“vice president”).
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. In our international magazine mailings, we always include the country name; however, we would like to know the correct procedure
for including “USA” after the city/state/ZIP. Is there a comma after the ZIP code
or not? Your assistance would greatly reduce the amount of tension/dissension among the writers and editor and proofreader.
A. There should be no comma before or after a zip code:
1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL 60637 USA
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Can you help me out with a question? Do you use a comma after the abbreviation of the word incorporated? For example, in the sentence “Today, ABC Company, Inc., announced that their earnings have increased 50 percent in the past year,” we have been told to use a comma after the word “Inc.” when used in a sentence. This has caused an uproar within the company because we did not learn this rule. Help!
A. According to CMOS 6.44,
Commas are not required with Inc., Ltd., and such as part of a company’s name. A particular company may use such commas in its corporate documentation; articles and books about such companies, however, should generally opt for a consistent style rather than make exceptions for particular cases.
The trick in running text is that if you use one comma, you must use two.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]