From owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Dec 29 08:32:44 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7E6A816A4CE for ; Wed, 29 Dec 2004 08:32:44 +0000 (GMT) Received: from asclepius.uwa.edu.au (asclepius3.uwa.edu.au [130.95.128.60]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4F47943D45 for ; Wed, 29 Dec 2004 08:32:43 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from zanchey@mussel.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au) Received: from asclepius.kas (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by asclepius.uwa.edu.au (Postfix) with SMTP id 113AB184526 for ; Wed, 29 Dec 2004 16:32:30 +0800 (WST) Received: from asclepius (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by asclepius.prekas (Postfix) with SMTP id 031BB18444A for ; Wed, 29 Dec 2004 16:32:30 +0800 (WST) X-UWA-Client-IP: 130.95.13.9 (UWA) Received: from mooneye.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au (mooneye.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au [130.95.13.9]) by asclepius.input (Postfix) with ESMTP id EAB8B183C0A for ; Wed, 29 Dec 2004 16:32:29 +0800 (WST) Received: by mooneye.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au (Postfix, from userid 801) id 29CC217F17; Wed, 29 Dec 2004 16:32:29 +0800 (WST) Received: from mussel (mussel.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au [130.95.13.18]) by mooneye.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au (Postfix) with ESMTP id C2A7417E2C; Wed, 29 Dec 2004 16:32:28 +0800 (WST) Received: from zanchey (helo=localhost) by mussel with local-esmtp (Exim 3.36 #1 (Debian)) id 1CjZFs-0005bw-00; Wed, 29 Dec 2004 16:32:28 +0800 Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 16:32:28 +0800 (WST) From: David Adam To: Nikolas Britton In-Reply-To: <41D14393.7080803@nbritton.org> Message-ID: References: <6587631D.5034AB43.0F75C5EC@netscape.net> <200412280020.16012.krinklyfig@spymac.com> <200412280212.20958.krinklyfig@spymac.com> <41D14393.7080803@nbritton.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: David Adam X-SpamTest-Info: Profile: Formal (188/041227) X-SpamTest-Info: Profile: Detect Hard [UCS 290904] X-SpamTest-Info: Profile: SysLog X-SpamTest-Info: Profile: Marking Spam - Subject (UCS) [02-08-04] X-SpamTest-Status: Not detected X-SpamTest-Version: SMTP-Filter Version 2.0.0 [0125], KAS/Release cc: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Time to shut down this list? X-BeenThere: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Gathering place for new users List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 08:32:44 -0000 On Tue, 28 Dec 2004, Nikolas Britton wrote: > >redundant. One nitpicky thing - although punctuation rules say it's > >technically correct to use a comma before the last item in a series, > >that is archaic usage, and the most commonly accepted modern rule is to > >leave it off. So, it would be better as: "... problem solving, sharing > >ideas and moral support." It's not that big of a deal, but it's better > >to use accepted punctuation rules, and, besides, if it ends up the > >other way it's going to drive me crazy. Sorry, but I was raised by a > >mom who's an English teacher ... > > > >- jt > > > My college English teacher said it was only ok for news papers to leave > it off so they could save space. Ahh, the old Oxford (or serial) comma... Nikolas, your college English teacher was right. You should leave the third comma in there. The FreeBSD Documentation Project says so :-) http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/fdp-primer/writing-style.html "Use the serial comma In a list of items within a paragraph, separate each item from the others with a comma. Separate the last item from the others with a comma and the word ``and''." Remember, for fun and games with grammar, you can always join freebsd-doc@! (And incidentally, this is fast going OT...) Cheers, David Adam zanchey@ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au "Second-year MBBS... so that means you can cure 1/6th of all diseases?"