Post AbAVjXs3HVbGsnXFOi by davidhooper@podcastindex.social
(DIR) More posts by davidhooper@podcastindex.social
(DIR) Post #AbAPoOwFJsZwu1Qg8e by grammargirl@zirk.us
2023-10-26T16:06:42Z
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A friend who's still on Twitter just sent me this viral Oxford comma post "The Art of War," Amy Schumer's memoir and many other books are banned in US prisons."It's actually an example of when an Oxford comma doesn't help. If you put a comma after "memoir," it could still be interpreted as an appositive saying that the book was Schumer's memoir.That doesn't make for such a funny post, but it's a great example sentence for people like me who give talks about the Oxford comma!
(DIR) Post #AbAQZt5x13cC2ebzzk by fgraver@hcommons.social
2023-10-26T16:15:19Z
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@grammargirl I’ll concede the point, but still: you can pry the Oxford comma from my cold, dead hands.But I will argue this is a case where more widespread use of the m-dash could help avoid confusion. As in, if «The Art of War» actually were Shumer’s memoir, then the sentence would read: «The Art of War» — Amy Shumer’s memoir — and many other books…Voila! Confusion avoided! And the Oxford comma lives on.
(DIR) Post #AbAQzfKOp8fysDf6NE by Mikal@sfba.social
2023-10-26T16:19:57Z
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@grammargirl It's not like it's very difficult to anticipate the potential confusion and rewrite it, e.g.,"Amy Schumer's memoir and Sun Tzu's 'The Art of War' are among a long list of books banned in U.S. prisons…"Writing in a way that avoids Oxford commas is usually simpler anyway, imo.
(DIR) Post #AbAR0HxNCgQkg6BlOi by davidhooper@podcastindex.social
2023-10-26T16:20:02Z
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@grammargirl When I first read this, I thought "The Art of War" was the name of her memoir. My guess is that they shortened this one for Twitter. And the single quotes are throwing me off. British maybe?
(DIR) Post #AbARLJ5wAQV6HzDV9E by grammargirl@zirk.us
2023-10-26T16:23:54Z
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@davidhooper Headlines use single quotation marks in AP style, so it's probably a tweet of a headline.
(DIR) Post #AbAROuQBqOCgvNPKAy by grammargirl@zirk.us
2023-10-26T16:24:32Z
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@Mikal Excellent rewrite!
(DIR) Post #AbARiPDZZFTfwLnorQ by grammargirl@zirk.us
2023-10-26T16:28:06Z
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@fgraver Dashes would definitely work better than commas if it were her memoir.
(DIR) Post #AbASYL1AQcp1yKlNZY by valeg@mastodon.social
2023-10-26T16:37:27Z
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@grammargirl well, this was a trainwreck of a tweet 😄
(DIR) Post #AbATNeSRuVjv26zaEK by marinaepelman@mastodon.social
2023-10-26T16:46:41Z
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@grammargirl I can totally picture Amy Schumer titling her memoir “The Art of War”!
(DIR) Post #AbAUmTGWlBghVxoZUm by grammargirl@zirk.us
2023-10-26T17:02:24Z
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@marinaepelman 😂
(DIR) Post #AbAVjXs3HVbGsnXFOi by davidhooper@podcastindex.social
2023-10-26T17:13:06Z
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@grammargirl Ahhhh... I'm a Chicago guy myself, but only for the Oxford comma. 😜
(DIR) Post #AbAadUT9W03IMloxQe by grammargirl@zirk.us
2023-10-26T18:07:58Z
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@michaelgalassi That’s great to hear!
(DIR) Post #AbAc0GNu9CsTIXmyxs by chelseablue70@mastodon.world
2023-10-26T18:23:20Z
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@grammargirl The problem is that they switch from title to author. It would only be easy to read if they included Sun Tzu's.
(DIR) Post #AbAy6c3KhFM7EJbEa8 by VE2UWY@mastodon.radio
2023-10-26T22:31:00Z
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@grammargirl I read that and thought "yeah, that's about right" and never considered that it *wasn't* Ms Schumer's memoir ...