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MattBryant Posted 11 years ago
Grammar
Punctuation in a List
At which point in a list does it become long enough to require a semicolon? Can anybody explain this rule to me? Thank you.
Top answer
It's not length as such, but grammatical complexity. Compare these lists: Guests included students from Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil ; the teachers who had accompanied them and taught the morning classes ; the teachers from the United States and Canada who had taught the afternoon classes ; and representatives of the organisations hosting the event. Guests included students, teachers, university lecturers, parents, trade union officials, local employers and city councillors.
- It's not length as such, but grammatical complexity.
- Compare these lists: Guests included students from Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil ; the teachers who had accompanied them and taught the morning classes ; the teachers from the United States and Canada who had taught the afternoon classes ; and representatives of the organisations hosting the event.
- Guests included students, teachers, university lecturers, parents, trade union officials, local employers and city councillors.
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5 Answers
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It's not length as such, but grammatical complexity. Compare these lists:
Guests included students from Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil; the teachers who had accompanied them and taught the morning classes; the teachers from the United States and Canada who had taught the afternoon classes; and representatives of the organisations hosting the event.
Guests included students from Mexico, Venezuela and Brazil; the teachers who had accompanied them and taught the morning classes; the teachers from the United States and Canada who had taught the afternoon classes; and representatives of the organisations hosting the event.
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Got it. But what if every item in the list is a brief one (e.g. "students, teachers, university lecturers, parents, trade union officals …") except one item that is kind of like e.g. "the teachers who had accompiened them and taught morning classes," only that this one item requires its own punctuation either with commas or parentheses (haven't decided, don't know if affects your answer)?
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I'd put the long item last, after the word 'and'; I might well use a comma before 'and':
The guests included students, university lecturers, parents, trade union officials , local employers, and the teachers who had accompanied the students and taught morning classes.
The guests included students, university lecturers, parents, trade union officials , local employers, and the teachers who had accompanied the students and taught morning classes.
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fivejedjonand the teachers who had accompanied the students and taught morning classes.Even if there was a comma in that last item, like, say, "… and the teachers who had accompanied the students, whose schedules were very busy, and taught morning classes?"
That sounds bad and the addition is not needed, but I'm just trying to stick to our example. T
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MattBryantEven if there was a comma in that last item, like, say, "… and the teachers who had accompanied the students, whose schedules were very busy, and taught morning classes?"I just wouldn't do that. The sentence has become too unwieldy.
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