Trouble with AmerEng v BritEng usage: commas

Fallen said:

But I'm not sure about the comma placement in these:

Sweeping up wasn't top of her list, as a cook.

She need to say "get lost", one more time.

To me, both should simply read:

Sweeping up wasn't top of her list as a cook.

She need to say "get lost" one more time.

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Fallen, in my book, the specific examples with commas are not correct. They're superfluous commas. At any rate, your examples without commas are as correct over here as they are over there.

I tend to agree that those would be more a matter of stylistic preference. As a Native user of American English, I use enough commas but not too many. And I initially had one before "but nor t too many." One use of commas that isn't heavily in the rule book is to set soemthing off for emphasis, and I think that would, or could, apply to your sentence about saying "get lost."

I agree with Chase. (Surprise.) I don't like the commas in either of your examples.

Sweeping up wasn't top of her list, as a cook.
She need to say "get lost", one more time.

Okay, if British English says there should be a comma, fine--but I'd want to know on what basis. What's the rule which applies and which is different from the rule for American English?

Maryn, who cannot think of any reason to include them

Casual Brit opinion in passing:

I'd drop the comma in "She needed to say "get lost", one more time."

I'd keep the comma in "Sweeping up wasn't top of her list, as a cook." Because there isn't an actual "cook's list" which is what "her list as a cook" (without the comma) implies -- "her list" refers to her other priorities. If in doubt, flip the clauses: "As a cook, sweeping up wasn't top of her list."

-Derek

Fallen said:

Sweeping up wasn't top of her list, as a cook.

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I don't quite like this sentence because the "as a cook" doesn't really flow from the rest of the sentence. But if I had to leave that sentence as is, I'd also keep the comma (precisely because it doesn't flow too well.

She need to say "get lost", one more time.

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Default language would suggest to get rid of the comma, but I'd need more context. That's because commas sometimes make two units out that which would otherwise have been one. If I had read that sentence in isolation, I wouldn't have thought it was a mistake, but rather I'd have adjusted my prosody so that the sentence finishes after "lost".

It's what I call (to myself) the "after-though comma". You finish a sentence, and then realise you left out important information.

Now you'll see why I need the comma in the above. The "as a cook" only makes sense (to me) as a qualification of what's already been said. It's an addition.

In such situations, I often use a fullstop:


But in the first sentence a fullstop doesn't look right to me, and I think it's because the negation carries over. To illustrate my point:


flows better for me (but might confer too much emphasis for the original context). (Dpaterso's flipping around the "as a cook" is probably the best solution for a non-emphatic, sentence framing "as a cook".

Note that I can't tell out of context whether these actually are afterthought-commas (although the first is very likely one).

The sweeping sentence could also be a confusion between dialogue punctuation and quotationmarks for highlighting, a mesh-up of:


and

Sweeping up wasn't top of her list as a cook.

Still, I think the best way to write this sentence would be, As a cook, sweeping up wasn't at the top of her list.

See, I'd keep the one in, She needed to say, "Get lost," one more time. I'd even add another.

Sometimes, a comma is placed to show how a person speaks or thinks. Used as a form of diction. If that makes sense...

In general narrative though, the editor will have the final say and from what I have read, if its for a US audience, then US style will be used...

Fallen said:

(if this post id doulbled, sorry. Damn computer's playing up)

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Thanks for teaching me a new Briticism.

My guess would be this writer might have a similar "finger tic" to the one I have. At odd times, when I strike the space bar, my finger will come down on the comma or quotation key, too, so I end up with random commas and quotes throughout the MS (Usually commas in the middle of sentences and quotations at the end. I'm not sure why.)

Fallen said:

Damn computer's playing up

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Hey, Fallen. I wanted to ask you a question about this usage. My assumption was that computese would be conformed on both sides of the pond, so I'm guessing that you already had 'playing up' in your language before computers, as we in the US had 'acting up.'

I think we use this verb (to act up) mostly for machinery. The vacuum cleaner is acting up again. Is that how it is over there? You would say that the hoover is playing up? On the fritz?

Fallen said:

Oh... I thought you were pulling me up over the spelling of 'id' (is), peg. Lol.

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Oh boy -- now you've done it again. Pulling me up? I would really love to live a couple of months in England and just stand on street corners, listening.

But 'pulling me up' isn't so clear to me as your computer 'playing up' rather than 'acting up.' Can you tell me what 'pulling me up' means? Messing with you? Correcting you? Maybe you could say the same thing a couple of different ways so I can get a better understanding of 'pulling you up'?

Anyway, no, I wasn't talking about the 'id' thing. Sorry. I should have deleted that part of your sentence when I presented the backquote.