Seriously - Who IS the grammar police?

[kickassangel]

Or who ARE the grammar police? (Depending on whether the Atlantic is to your left or your right).

anyway - I teach in a school in the US. It's report writing time of year and we're having our annual debate over the use of commas. It's all good natured, but there are some big differences in opinion about when to use a comma for certain types of sub clause and/or compund sentences.

Next year we're planning to put together some statement banks of common phrases we use, so that we can cut down how much time we spend on writing reports. It would be nice if we could all agree.

However, we all have various grammar books (from various decades) which give conflicting/different answers.

So - if you're looking for a definitive answer on grammar ( in the UK or the US) Who would you see as the governing body/grammar police? Who is in charge?

For comma aficionados, here is an amusing article ("Confessions of a Comma Queen") by a comma specialist who edits for the New Yorker:

www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/02/23/holy-writ

In the example you give, I might just rewrite the sentence to avoid the issue, as I don't think it is particularly elegant in its current form.

Yes - if you can't decide whether or where to comma then that's often indicative that rephrasing could help. Sometimes it's better to split the sentence up.

Oh I know, Errol, the Oxford comma was originally British, and traditionally used at OUP - but what I said was that it's not generally used in Britain any more (at least, not with the publishers I work for), unless it's to avoid ambiguity.

For instance, an Oxford comma is a good idea in this phrase:

...encounters with Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector...

Thanks for that link, clara. Great article, although I think she may need to change her name from Comma Queen to Colon Queen.