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The17pointscale Posted 20 years ago
Grammar
commas & adjectives
how would you punctuate the following sentences? i'm the most befuddled by the first one:
...will lead to gene expression changes in the blood lymphocytes of healthy, non-smoking, Caucasian male volunteers.
and
...twenty healthy, non-smoking male volunteers between the ages of ...
thanks,
Andrew
ps. i am delighted to have found this grammar forum. i'm all grins.
...will lead to gene expression changes in the blood lymphocytes of healthy, non-smoking, Caucasian male volunteers.
and
...twenty healthy, non-smoking male volunteers between the ages of ...
thanks,
Andrew
ps. i am delighted to have found this grammar forum. i'm all grins.
Top answer
It seems to me both sentences follow the same pattern in that all the adjectives to 'male volunteers' but the last one are followed by a comma ; which would be the expected punctuation in my opinion. 'healthy, non-smoking, caucasian male volunteers' 'healthy, non-smoking male volunteers' Personally they both look and sound good to me... And same for the following one : 'healthy, non-smoking, caucasian, professional male volunteers' Now it would be a different story if you were to say : 'healthy, non-smoking, caucasian, young urban professional male volunteers'.
- It seems to me both sentences follow the same pattern in that all the adjectives to 'male volunteers' but the last one are followed by a comma ; which would be the expected punctuation in my opinion.
- 'healthy, non-smoking, caucasian male volunteers' 'healthy, non-smoking male volunteers' Personally they both look and sound good to me...
- And same for the following one : 'healthy, non-smoking, caucasian, professional male volunteers' Now it would be a different story if you were to say : 'healthy, non-smoking, caucasian, young urban professional male volunteers'.
- But this is because 'young urban professional' is now a whole expression that you don't want to 'slice' with commas.
- Let's wait to see what forum gurus have to say here...
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3 Answers
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It seems to me both sentences follow the same pattern in that all the adjectives to 'male volunteers' but the last one are followed by a comma ; which would be the expected punctuation in my opinion.
'healthy, non-smoking, caucasian male volunteers'
'healthy, non-smoking male volunteers'
Personally they both look and sound good to me... And same for the following one :
'healthy, no
'healthy, non-smoking, caucasian male volunteers'
'healthy, non-smoking male volunteers'
Personally they both look and sound good to me... And same for the following one :
'healthy, no
00
Welcome, Andrew!
In both cases I would use commas between all of the adjectives preceding volunteers. For clarity, I would hyphenate gene-expression; the changes are not gene changes or expression changes, but gene-expression changes. Also, nonsmoking is not hyphenated.
-...will lead to gene-expression changes in the blood
In both cases I would use commas between all of the adjectives preceding volunteers. For clarity, I would hyphenate gene-expression; the changes are not gene changes or expression changes, but gene-expression changes. Also, nonsmoking is not hyphenated.
-...will lead to gene-expression changes in the blood
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0 thanks! 02 br
02 br
00 i was befuddled because everywhere i looked guides told me that the best way to determine punctuation in a series of adjectives was to see if the adjective order was interchangeable or whether or not various adjectives were linked. generally speaking that might be fine, but i was stumped; it seemed so subjective. 02 br
02 br
00 -andrew 0
02 br
00 i was befuddled because everywhere i looked guides told me that the best way to determine punctuation in a series of adjectives was to see if the adjective order was interchangeable or whether or not various adjectives were linked. generally speaking that might be fine, but i was stumped; it seemed so subjective. 02 br
02 br
00 -andrew 0
0
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