Referring Court and Counsel to the Oxford comma...
My adoration of punctuation, E.B. White, The Elements of Style, and Stephen Colbert are well-known. So imagine my glee when Stephen took Vampire Weekend to task for singing, "who gives a fuck about the Oxford comma" in their song, "Oxford Comma." What's even more spectacular is that he berated them by referring to his own copy of what I call the bible, aka The Elements of Style, also known as "Strunk and White," (specifically rule two of "The Rules Of Common Usage" on serial commas). Stephen is a Elements and punctuation geek too! LOVE IT. This genius clip merely cements my devotion to Stephen and my eternal citizenship in the Colbert Nation.
I (and many many others) think everyone should own a copy of this book, as a reference and tool to help you think about how to clarify and organize your writing. I have the gorgeous collector's edition of the Elements, illustrated by Moira Kalman. One of the things I hate most about the contrived mess that is legal writing is the refusal to use punctuation properly. The Bluebook, which is followed by almost all legal publications and most federal courts (as well as some state courts), is silent on the subject. Lawyers seem to take that as permission to make up their own rule.
Of course, part of a bachelors in journalism is many, many classes to drill you in AP Style, which contradicts Elements on several points, including Oxford commas. So at this point I often feel a tad schizophrenic when writing as I try to juggle three different sets of rules. My default is AP style, particularly when I'm tired or rushing, no matter how hard I try to shake the habit. It's more like four systems at once if you count ALWD, the much hated system they taught in our required legal writing courses when I was a 1L and made us use in International and Appellate Advocacy. The school's incorporation of ALWD in the curriculum always made us crazy. It is a useless system to learn because no courts or law publications follow it.
My mentor/idol/boss has a different view on whether White should be deified, which we have spent many enjoyable hours debating. He forwarded me this interesting article for those who want to hear an opposing opinion of the value of the Elements.
Totally off topic, I hate that they removed all the buttons on the LJ Post menu that would format for those of us too dumb to know HTML for everything but inserting an image or embedding a video. I've just been going without formatting since they made the change, irritating many with my lack of cuts. Last week I finally broke down and started looking back in old entries to copy and paste the correct HTML codes to stop annoying everyone. Is there a way to get it back or a handy LJ HTML reference guide someone could point me to?
Vampire Weekend "Oxford Comma:"
Stephen defends the Oxford aka serial comma:
I (and many many others) think everyone should own a copy of this book, as a reference and tool to help you think about how to clarify and organize your writing. I have the gorgeous collector's edition of the Elements, illustrated by Moira Kalman. One of the things I hate most about the contrived mess that is legal writing is the refusal to use punctuation properly. The Bluebook, which is followed by almost all legal publications and most federal courts (as well as some state courts), is silent on the subject. Lawyers seem to take that as permission to make up their own rule.
Of course, part of a bachelors in journalism is many, many classes to drill you in AP Style, which contradicts Elements on several points, including Oxford commas. So at this point I often feel a tad schizophrenic when writing as I try to juggle three different sets of rules. My default is AP style, particularly when I'm tired or rushing, no matter how hard I try to shake the habit. It's more like four systems at once if you count ALWD, the much hated system they taught in our required legal writing courses when I was a 1L and made us use in International and Appellate Advocacy. The school's incorporation of ALWD in the curriculum always made us crazy. It is a useless system to learn because no courts or law publications follow it.
My mentor/idol/boss has a different view on whether White should be deified, which we have spent many enjoyable hours debating. He forwarded me this interesting article for those who want to hear an opposing opinion of the value of the Elements.
Totally off topic, I hate that they removed all the buttons on the LJ Post menu that would format for those of us too dumb to know HTML for everything but inserting an image or embedding a video. I've just been going without formatting since they made the change, irritating many with my lack of cuts. Last week I finally broke down and started looking back in old entries to copy and paste the correct HTML codes to stop annoying everyone. Is there a way to get it back or a handy LJ HTML reference guide someone could point me to?
Vampire Weekend "Oxford Comma:"
Click to viewStephen defends the Oxford aka serial comma: