TIL our book club debate got way too heated over a comma

Last Tuesday we argued for 45 minutes about whether a comma changes the meaning in a sentence from *The Road*. I was on the side that said it doesn't matter, but Sarah showed us a 2019 grammar study from the University of Chicago that proved it actually does. Has anyone else had a debate spiral into punctuation territory like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

finley_flores281mo ago

Read an article once that said commas have literally changed the outcome of court cases. Your book club sounds like it could use a referee.

ivanl761mo ago

I've been in three different book clubs over the years and every single one had at least one argument over punctuation. @finley_flores28 is right about the court cases too, there was that whole thing with dairy truck drivers and overtime pay that came down to a missing comma. My last club finally made a rule that we just read the book and talk about the story, not the editing.