U.S. Government Publishing Office

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For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Nicholas James Bridgewater the elements of style by william strunk jr section one two elementary rules of usage rules one to four one form the possessive singular of nouns with apostrophe s follow this rule whatever the final consonant thus write charles's friend Burns's Poems The Witch's Malice This is the usage of the United States Government Printing Office and of the Oxford University Press Exceptions are the possessives of ancient proper names in ES and IS the possessive Jesus and such forms as for conscience sake for righteousness sake f o r r i g h t e o u s n e s s a k e but such forms as achilles heel moses laws isis temple are commonly replaced by the heel of achilles the laws of moses the temple of isis the pronominal possessives hers its theirs yours and oneself have no apostrophe two in a series of three or more terms with a single conjunction use a comma after each term except the last thus write red comma white comma and blue honest energetic but headstrong he opened the letter read it and made a note of its contents this is also the usage of the government printing office and of the oxford university press in the names of business firms the last comma is omitted as brown comma shipley and company the abbreviation etc period comma even if only a single term comes after it is always preceded by a comma three enclose parenthetic expressions between commas The best way to see a country, unless you are pressed for time, is to travel on foot This rule is difficult to apply It is frequently hard to decide whether a single word such as however or a brief phrase is or is not parenthetic If the interruption to the flow of the sentence is but slight, the writer may safely omit the commas.

But whether the interruption be slight or considerable, he must never omit one comma and leave the other.

such punctuation as marjory's husband colonel nelson paid us a visit yesterday or my brother you will be pleased to hear is now in perfect health is indefensible non-restrictive relative clauses are in accordance with this rule set off by commas the audience which had at first been indifferent became more and more interested similar clauses introduced by where and when are similarly punctuated in seventeen sixty nine when napoleon was born corsica had but recently been acquired by france nether stowey where coleridge wrote the rhyme of the ancient mariner is a few miles from bridgewater In these sentences, the clauses introduced by which, when, and where are non-restrictive.

And it has long driven grammar nerds crazy, because even major language institutions can't agree on whether it should be used.

Ironically, the Oxford comma is more common in the United States, where it's recommended by the MLA, the Chicago Style Manual, and the U.S. Government Printing Office, though not by the AP Style Book.

In the UK and other English-speaking countries, most style guides do not support the comma's use, with the exception of its namesake, the Oxford University Press.

Why not use the serial comma? One of the main arguments is that the conjunction is usually enough to denote a separate entity.

The proposal would primarily affect electric utilities and major electricity users and could influence how infrastructure costs are distributed.

Additional legislation addressed the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress and authorities of the Government Publishing Office.

The House also referred two Senate bills to the Committee on Natural Resources.

None of these reported bills received final House passage that day, and there were no recorded votes, committee hearings, or joint committee meetings.

So I have been biased ever since the day it happened, because I went back to my bookshelf and pulled the book off the shelf and said, "Holy fucking shit.

How did the US Government Printing Office know this was gonna happen in 1993? How did Benjamin Netanyahu do a book tour in 1995 and brag that Americans did not understand suicidal Islamists? I guess the Islamists will have to bring down the World Trade Center for Americans to realize that Islam is a threat to America." 1995.

Like, did you have to be so specific to say it that way, Netanyahu? And then of course, the day of 9/11, Netanyahu was quoted as saying, "9/11 is great for Israel." It's a happy day.

I mean, he might as well just jump in and dance with the other five Israelis.