When to use serial commas: totem and taboo

Always ask your client its preference: serial commas or not? If no preference, the governing criterion for the serial comma would be, which style guide does the client prefer? If the Chicago Manual, then, serial commas OK. If AP, serial commas, not.

If there be no preferred style guide, here is the rule of thumb. If your client or employer is an American over the age of 40, do not use serial commas. American schools in the last century taught that the last element in a series should not be preceded by a comma. Otherwise, use serial commas.

The important thing here is that you — as a working proofreader — want to avoid being the ultimate authority. As any experienced proofreader already knows, second-guessing the proofreader is the blood sport of support staff. Staff would waste time challenging your discretion. You may be tempted to waste time defending it. The best tack is to refer to higher authority — especially a printed book — which obtains even more totemic authority among non-readers than it does among readers.

Online, serial commas are more than a matter of style. International readers may be accustomed to logical — rather than ornamental — punctuation; they would appreciate the serial comma. Also, online publications are read by machines — such as search engines — and machines can parse logical punctuation more easily than ornamental punctuation.

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Totems are chosen arbitrarily for the sole purpose of making the physical world a comprehensive and coherent classificatory system — Claude Lévi-Strauss, author of Totemism.

Totem and Taboo is a book by Sigmund Freud

Serial commas: neither Oxford nor Harvard

A serial comma is — and ought to be — called a “serial comma.” Nearly everyone will grasp — or be able to guess — what it is. Clear communication is among a proofreader’s goals.

Do not call it an “Oxford comma,” or a “Harvard comma,” or any other fanciful nonsense. The use of those old school names sounds either pejorative — a suggestion that the thing is old-fashioned — or pretentious. In either case, it will be necessary to explain what you mean, which will be a waste of your time.

Clauses: American, not British, punctuation

FAIR COPY [PROOF]

I can’t think of a more delightful venue for making the most of your retirement than Burgundy Estates in the heart of the country with its good air, brilliant light and beautiful vistas.

FOUL COPY [MARKED PROOF]

I can’t think of a more delightful venue for making the most of your retirement than Burgundy Estates [INSERT COMMA , ] in the heart of the country [INSERT COMMA , ] with its good air, brilliant light and beautiful vistas.

ADVICE

Young Americans may be inured to the breathless British style of omitting punctuation to set off introductory or subordinate clauses. They may accept without complaint the burden of figuring out for themselves where one part of a sentence ends and another begins.

Americans of a certain age will not like sentences which do not use commas to indicate introductory or subordinate clauses. They would consider omission of these marks to be faulty punctuation. Bad manners, too: a lack of consideration for the reader’s time.

Curmudgeons may even regard the omission as proof of a decline in standards — a result of dumbed-down schools, and News Corp’s infiltration of British hacks into American media.

NOTE

The Chicago Manual of Style recommends dashes — instead of commas — to set off clauses. I strongly concur: dashes improve clarity.

Good places and bad places to proofread

A good place to proofread is one which lets the proofreader read proofs.

A bad place to proofread is one in which the proofreading is abused as an excuse for jobs not completed timely.

Proofreader’s tools: more than just a red pen

Bring your own red pen. The Platonic ideal of proofreading is that no equipment would be required; only a critical mind. The client is supposed to supply a red pen: most do. However, many clients will offer red pens which are nearly out of ink, or which are broken, or which will not mark on the laser-toner-covered reverse-type page proofs which will be presented for inspection.

Black-lead pencils and color markers are for production artists or editors; red ink is for proofreaders. Note well. Beware of firms which do not reserve red marks for proofreading: it is a sign of other, nonstandard practices — remember that departures from standards always inure to the detriment of the proofreader.

Be on the safe side: bring also, an opaque marker — white or silver — for laser-toner-covered reverse-type page proofs.

Removable, adhesive “sticky notes,” e.g., Post-It® notes. Everybody will hate them, because they fall off; but — as long as clients insist upon page proofs which offer no places to make proofreader’s marks — you will need them to communicate with the next person in the process.

Magnifying glass — Use the kind that sits on top of the proof; not the kind with a handle. Your arms will tire from holding a magnifying glass over the proof.

Ruler — Sooner or later you will want to see whether everything is on the same line. The ruler should be wider than U. S. letter-size or A4 paper. 18 inches or 50 centimeters is good. A printer’s pica pole would be ideal.

A lamp with a long extension cord — Proofreaders are always put in the darkest place on the premises. Think that’s accidental?

Pre-moistened towelettes — Your hands will get dirty. The lavatory will always be an inconvenient distance from the place where you do your job.