Books by Henry Clark
  • Home
  • Blog
  • What We Found in the Sofa
    • Reviews of Sofa
    • Excerpts From Sofa
    • Sofa Scrapbook
  • Time Travel Happens
  • Time Travel
  • Educator's Guides
    • What We Found in the Sofa
  • Bio
  • Links

Confessions of a Serial Comma

1/4/2013

2 Comments

 
Picture
For those of you who did not find a copy of Little, Brown's 2013 Young Readers catalog in with the advertising supplements of last Sunday's newspaper, clicking here or on the picture to the left will take you to the catalog's two most interesting pages: the pages describing What We Found in the Sofa and How It Saved the World. There's even an excerpt from the book.

And this strikes me as a good place to discuss the serial comma.

The serial comma, for those of you who are not hung up on minutiae, is the comma used before a coordinating conjunction (usually the word "and") just before the final item in a list of three or more things. For example, "Winkin, Blinkin and Nod" does not contain a serial comma, whereas "Winkin, Blinkin, and Nod" does. You can see the difference.

The serial comma is a cry for help. It screams "STOP ME BEFORE I PAUSE AGAIN!" The serial comma is also known as the Oxford Comma, and I was taught by my fourth grade teacher to use, instead, the Cambridge Emptiness, a blank, comma-less space just before the coordinating conjunction and final item in a list. "Winkin, Blinkin and Nod" contains the Cambridge Emptiness, and, as my teacher explained, using fewer commas makes books substantially lighter, and therefore school book-bags less heavy, resulting in fewer cases of scoliosis in the young. It also saves millions of gallons of printer's ink over the course of a year, at a time when world stockpiles are dangerously low and environmentalists have all but shut down exploratory drilling.
Picture
It is, however, the editorial policy at Little, Brown that the serial comma be used, so What We Found in the Sofa came out about a page longer than it really had to be. I protested to my editor at the time, but I finally acquiesced.

I knew enough not to argue that the company logo itself proudly displays the Cambridge Emptiness.
Picture
2 Comments
Paul
1/14/2013 05:30:35 am

Dear Henry,

My son (just turned 9) just started reading your book and can not put it down. I've been trying to get him to read more complex books with less illustrations the past few months, and it was a hard sell, but he eventually latched onto yours (it was one of about 15 he got to pick from). Now when I tell him "lights out" he begs me for "just a few more pages". I realize the book is for children a bit older than him but he reads well beyond his level and I wanted to challenge him.
Next I'll have to educate him on the serial comma!

Reply
Henry
1/14/2013 11:40:39 pm

Hi Paul (&Son),

Thanks for the note! This constitutes the very first review of WWFITS, and I'm so glad the reviewer liked it! And thank you for taking the time to pass it on!

Very sincerely,

Henry Clark

(GUERNICA APPROVED THIS MESSAGE.)

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Henry Clark 

    Pictured here on the day he sold What We Found in the Sofa. His mood is cautiously optimistic.

    You should see him when he's happy.

    Picture

    Archives

    August 2020
    May 2020
    July 2019
    July 2016
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012

    Categories

    All
    Amazon
    Antietam
    April 14th
    Audiobook
    Awards
    Boogers
    Book Number 3
    Botox
    Bunny Ears
    Cambridge Emptiness
    Cross-time Dressers
    Doritos
    Easter Eggs
    Emoticonman
    Endpapers
    Food Pyramid
    French Edition
    Galleys
    Gojira
    Goodreads
    Groucho Glasses
    Hammock Day
    Iago
    Inflatable Campfire
    Junior Library Guild
    Kirkus Review
    Lewis Carroll
    Library
    MacGuffin
    Magic Lantern
    Mark Twain Award
    Modern Times
    Mrs. O
    Mummified Squirrel
    Nunchucks
    Outhouses
    Podcast
    Pork Bellies
    Portmanteau Words
    Richard Iii
    Serial Comma
    Thalia Book Club
    The Missing Month
    Time Loops
    Toilet Balloon
    Trans-temporals
    Transtemps
    Two Headed
    Virtual Book Club
    Werewolves
    Yale Club

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.