Job Discussion Forums

[JN]

I'm proofing and editing a journal article for someone who prefers it to be in British English. Does anyone know the differences of comma usage between British and American English or can someone recommend a good website?

I have found out that British English doesn't use a comma in lists of things before the and (hope I'm making sense here-it's kind of late), but I'm not sure if there are any other differences.

[johnslat]

Dear JN,

Besides the use of the serial comma, I think the only other differences are these:

"British Use

In a side note, the British do just the opposite: they use single quotation marks where Americans use double quotation marks and double quotation marks where Americans use singles.

Ex. ‘We’re going to the park’, I said. (British use)

Ex. ‘Bob told us he “saw a Martian”,’ said Burt. (British use)

Note: Unlike American style, which requires commas and periods to go inside the quotation marks, in the British style, commas and periods can go either inside or outside the punctuation, depending on the logic of the quotation and where it occurs in the sentence. According to Michael Quinion, writing in World Wide Words, “British style now prefers to punctuate according to the sense, in which punctuation marks only appear inside quotation marks if they were there in the original.” In other words, the punctuation belongs inside the quote itself if it logically goes with what was spoken or written.

In this style, as well, colons and semicolons are always placed outside the quotation marks. Also, in both styles, exclamation marks and question marks go either inside or outside, depending on meaning.

Ex. Ursula asked, “Did the cows come home?”

Ex. Did Ursula ask “Did the cows come home”?

In the first example sentence, the quotation itself is a question, so the question mark logically goes inside the quotation marks. In the second example sentence, the full sentence is a question, so the question mark goes outside the quotation marks."

http://www.uhv.edu/ac/newsletters/writing/grammartip2008.05.21.htm

By the way, a lot of sites call the serial (Oxford/Harvard) comma "mandatory" in American English, but I would say that's not the case at all.


Regards,
John

[HLJHLJ]

I don't know if it's the same for AmE but in BrE native speakers have a tendency to massively overuse commas. If they are British taught don't second guess yourself if it feels like you are deleting every other comma in the text.

[JN]

Thanks for the reminder on the quotes and commas, John.

The German woman I work with tends to not put in enough commas, so I am always adding them. I've added some before which and before as well as. I assume that's correct or does someone disagree with that.

Thanks again for the info.

[Allthechildrenareinsane]

Does the article in question fall into the humanities or the social sciences?

If the former, overviews of the MLA Style Manual's comma usage rules and general guidelines can be found at http://www.ehow.com/info_8695510_mla-comma-rules.html and http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/.

If the latter, the APA Publication Manual's guidelines on comma usage and other formatting and stylistic questions can be found at http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/04/using-serial-commas.html and http://www.apastyle.org/.

Based on a quick perusal of the interwebs, it appears that both style guides are in common usage by British scholars in the humanities and the social sciences.

[JN]

As far as I know, APA and MLA style haven't changed, regarding commas and Purdue is a good source, but also American. The article needed to be in British English, or as close as possible, as she had asked me to do it that way.

I'm not sure what I'd classify the article as, but I suppose it could be in the security and transportation area.

[Sashadroogie]

Depending on the nature of the article, you may need to replace every 'transportation' with 'transport'.

'Transportation' is usually used in the context of penal transportation to Australia. Otherwise it is rare in British English. Public transport, Department of Transport, air transport safety, etc.

[JN]

I was using security and transportation in my American English to describe the article, as I am not sure if the author wants me to describe it more in detail.

Thanks for the British English tip, though. I'll add that to my UK English repertoire. She doesn't actually use the word transportation or transport in her article.

[sprightly]

this is good--i have the opposite problem in that i'm a canadian living in the uk, and am now doing some editing for another canadian. i was thinking i was going punctuaion crazy or incompetent because i couldn't remember what was "right" and what wasn't.