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The serial comma (also referred to as the series comma, Oxford comma, [1] or Harvard comma [2]) is a comma placed after the second-to-last term in a list (just before the conjunction) when writing out three or more terms.
For example, "Stop!" has the punctuation inside the quotation marks because the word "stop" is said with emphasis. However, when using "scare quotes", the comma goes outside. Other examples: Arthur said the situation was "deplorable". (The full stop (period) is not part of the quotation.)
Do not use articles (a, an, or the) as the first word (Economy of the Second Empire, not The economy of the Second Empire), unless it is an inseparable part of a name (The Hague) or of the title of a work (A Clockwork Orange, The Simpsons). Normally use nouns or noun phrases: Early life, not In early life. [f]
The enumeration or ideographic comma (U+3001 、 IDEOGRAPHIC COMMA) is used in Chinese, [37]: 20 Japanese punctuation, and somewhat in Korean punctuation. In China and Korea, this comma ( 顿号 ; 頓號 ; dùnhào ) is usually only used to separate items in lists, while it is the more common form of comma in Japan ( 読点 , tōten , lit.
The section headings in the article start at the second level (==Heading 2==), with subsections at the third level (===Heading 3===), and so on. Sections should not skip levels from sections to sub-subsections (e.g., a fourth-level subsection heading immediately after a second-level heading). See also. Introduction to formatting (Wiki markup)
When the affirmative already uses auxiliary verbs (I am going), no other auxiliary verbs are added to negate the clause (I am not going). (Until the period of early Modern English, negation was effected without additional auxiliary verbs: I go not.) Most combinations of auxiliary verbs etc. with not have contracted forms: don't, can't, isn't, etc
While some sources view comma splices as a form of run-on sentences, [11] others limit the term to independent clauses that are joined without punctuation. [10] [13] Per The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the term "run-on sentence" is also used for "a very long sentence, especially one lacking order or coherence". [14]
Punctuation in the English language helps the reader to understand a sentence through visual means other than just the letters of the alphabet. [1] English punctuation has two complementary aspects: phonological punctuation, linked to how the sentence can be read aloud, particularly to pausing; [2] and grammatical punctuation, linked to the structure of the sentence. [3]