What grammar battles do you find yourself fighting?
Last week, it was widely reported that the lack of a so-called Oxford comma made a Maine law regarding overtime pay ambiguous, according to the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. An opinion by Judge David Barron interpreted the law in favor of dairy workers who distribute milk. “For want of a comma, we have this case,” the court said.
Then this week at Above the Law, the anonymous law professor LawProfBlawg wrote a column that also referenced the Oxford comma ruling. However, this post focused primarily on the trend away from double spaces after a period. “I have started a White House petition to require the federal government to add that extra space at the end of the sentence to all documents and to use the Oxford comma,” the blogger writes. “I’m tired of people telling me to wear the cargo shorts of single-spaced efficiency. I’m done with the looks of judgment and contempt.”
So this week, we ask you: What grammar or presentation battles do you find yourself fighting? If not the Oxford comma or spaces after a period, something related to parenthesis or brackets, perhaps?
Answer in the comments.
Read the answers to last week’s question: Did you take note of the US News rankings when deciding on a law school?
Featured answer:
Posted by American of African Descent: “I paid attention to the rankings only in the sense that I wanted to go to a Top 30 school. I turned down a Top 5 and a Top 15 because I received a full scholarship from a school ranked slightly lower. As a result, though, I had no debt after graduation and didn’t have to put up with the scut work that is the rite of passage for so many associates in BigLaw.”
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