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e.g. the big, blue car.
Is it acceptable in a (8-12 year-old) fiction manuscript to omit the comma?
e.g.
The humongous rolling snowball
OR
The humongous, rolling snowball
The big, happy, green giant
OR
The big happy green giant
OR
The big, happy green giant
I do not mean when one adjective modifies another:
e.g. The dark green envelope. (which never takes a comma)
I am referring only to when adjectives do not modify each other.
The grammatical rule is to include the comma, but I often see published writers omitting it. My understanding of general comma-usage in English is to leave them out if their omission does not reduce clarity of meaning. Is it an author's choice? Can you leave them out in some places and not in others? Must the adjective and comma usage be uniform throughout the manuscript, or can the author judge on a case by case basis based on clarity and awkwardness?
I'm editing a manuscript so I want to get this clear before I continue. Thanks up front.
Is it acceptable in a (8-12 year-old) fiction manuscript to omit the comma?
e.g.
The humongous rolling snowball
OR
The humongous, rolling snowball
The big, happy, green giant
OR
The big happy green giant
OR
The big, happy green giant
I do not mean when one adjective modifies another:
e.g. The dark green envelope. (which never takes a comma)
I am referring only to when adjectives do not modify each other.
The grammatical rule is to include the comma, but I often see published writers omitting it. My understanding of general comma-usage in English is to leave them out if their omission does not reduce clarity of meaning. Is it an author's choice? Can you leave them out in some places and not in others? Must the adjective and comma usage be uniform throughout the manuscript, or can the author judge on a case by case basis based on clarity and awkwardness?
I'm editing a manuscript so I want to get this clear before I continue. Thanks up front.
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