Does the following sentence have any missing commas or semicolons? If so, where?: We are shipping to Salem Oregon Kalamazoo Michigan Peoria Illinois and a few other places.
1 Answer
Mar 15, 2016
Yes, it lacks both. The proper sentence should be "We are shipping to Salem, Oregon; Kalamazoo, Michigan; Peoria, Illinois; and a few other places."
Explanation:
First, note that the list in the sentence is really composed of three different components:
- Salem, Oregon
- Kalamazoo, Michigan
- Peoria, Illinois
If we constructed the sentence with commas in between each of these terms, we would be left with a confusing sentence:
We are shipping to Salem, Oregon, Kalamazoo, Michigan, Peoria, Illinois, and a few other places.
We can clarify this list by using semicolons between the "state, city" pairs:
We are shipping to Salem, Oregon; Kalamazoo, Michigan; Peoria, Illinois; and a few other places.
