which you might well be if you're intending to self-publish, read this:

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1225116&postcount=16

Thanks to How Publishing Really Works for the link.

Emma



<Added>

It's worth looking at the HPRW post too, as there are interesting comments there too:

http://howpublishingreallyworks.blogspot.com/2009/10/how-to-test-copy-editor.html

It wasn't top of my todos for today, but that doesn't detract from the brilliance of that.
Gaius

Facinating. (Although it probably helps that I'm reading Simon Winchester's excellent The Surgeon Of Crowthorne about the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary at the moment.)

<Added>

Lol, yes, I hate Skunk & White (sic) too. I may indulge in a spot of ritual burning on Bonfire Night.

Thanks for that, Emma, it shed light on an area of writing that I wasn't even aware of. (I, too, had never heard of a serial, or Oxford, comma, at least not by any specific name. I know what it is now, because of looking it up in my Concise OED.)

Alex

There is definitely an art to it

Sarah

I hate Skunk & White (sic) too

Ooh, then you clearly haven't discoveed the new, illustrated edition! 'Tis gorgeous.

I do tend to encourage my writing students to invest in a copy, as I simply don't want to spend the rest of my life correcting run-on sentences, sentence fragments and splices. It may not be a mind-blowing read, but at least it's clear and concise...

I just find it too limited, MF, eg, it's hopeless if you want to know how to punctuate a long sentence and creative writing is not all about one-size-fits-all sentences.