Would an Oxford comma here make the headline more or less clear as to the intended meaning.
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6 comments:
Maybe not less clear, but the flavor of Exit, Voice and Loyalty would not make me feel the three choices the same way.
Thank you for your opinion.
And, of course, it is a minority one involving a feeling, which kind of exposes the answer for moving the goalpost of the question.
But since I got the question backward, it's all a wash.
As I read it --in the text of the article--there are really only two choices. The
loyalty becomes another choice after you have chosen to eliminate the first two. I am now so confused that I think we probably need to get Kelly in on this. I have no idea what the headline means now and the fact that they didn't mention bombs or mass shootings makes it moot anyway. Right?
As to the intended meaning, you may very well be correct that there are two choices. I was rendering three by including the non-choice of staying and keeping one's mouth shut.
What I meant that I had gotten backward was my reading of the concluding question. My answer was to 'Would the omission of the Oxford comma here make the headline more or less clear as to the intended meaning.'
My feeling is that the extra comma partially separates Loyalty, putting one of its feet in the realm of the non-choice. So removing that comma would seem to render it closer to the intended meaning.
This highlights, I think, the virtue in using the Oxmaferd comma as the default when making lists, no matter how short the contents therein, and not using it when your intended meaning calls for it.
I just reread "if you are loyal, you will not exit"
so I guess, as a math equation, exit cancels out loyal leaving voice. Which will probably get you fired anyway, so hell's bells, I shoulda included the whole article, but.."It's known as the Oxford comma because it was traditionally used by printers, readers, and editors at Oxford University Press. Not all writers and publishers use it, but it can clarify the meaning of a sentence when the items in a list are not single words:" Leave it. I must study more. "not single words" says the Oxford Dictionbook. Can we say pedantic?
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