From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: dkcombs@panix.com (David Combs) Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: line adjustment at the end of a sentence Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2012 01:05:05 +0000 (UTC) Organization: Public Access Networks Corp. Message-ID: References: <87pq59gihf.fsf@lapcat.tftorrey.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: plane.gmane.org X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1353805514 5057 80.91.229.3 (25 Nov 2012 01:05:14 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2012 01:05:14 +0000 (UTC) To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Sun Nov 25 02:05:27 2012 Return-path: Envelope-to: geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([208.118.235.17]) by plane.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1TcQex-0007Yp-5b for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sun, 25 Nov 2012 02:05:23 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:51647 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1TcQel-0001sb-Va for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Sat, 24 Nov 2012 20:05:11 -0500 Original-Path: usenet.stanford.edu!panix!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 49 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: panix2.panix.com Original-X-Trace: reader1.panix.com 1353805505 17290 166.84.1.2 (25 Nov 2012 01:05:05 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@panix.com Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2012 01:05:05 +0000 (UTC) X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test76 (Apr 2, 2001) Original-Xref: usenet.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:195566 X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:87888 Archived-At: In article , PJ Weisberg wrote: >-=-=-=-=-=- > >On Sunday, October 14, 2012, Joe Fineman wrote: >> dkcombs@panix.com (David Combs) writes: >> >>> Next subject: >>> >>> Is it: >>> >>> a, b and c >> I myself always use a, b, and c. I once read that the original reason for leaving out the final comma was with NEWSPAPERS, with their narrow columns, and the difficulty of fitting text within them. So typesetters started removing the final comma so as to have more room to make things fit. I think that if you look around you'll find that there's a hierarchy of this usage: --- leave out serial comma: Newspapers Magazines Novels (from "average quality" publishers) Novels, etc, from "high quality" publishers, eg Knopf. --- include serial comma. As to formal papers, there seems to be no rule; it's whatever the individual author was taught in school. David