The question is how to interpret the comma after “free state.” Justice Antonin Scalia, the author of the ruling, wrote that the comma set apart a mere preface to the “operative clause” of the ...

Insurance coverage disputes often rise or fall on sweeping questions — trigger theories, allocation frameworks, priority of coverage. But sometimes the battle comes down to something dramatically ...

PORTLAND, Maine — It all came down to a missing comma, and not just any one. And it's reignited a longstanding debate over whether the punctuation is necessary. A federal appeals court decided last ...

There's a well-worn joke that if you call a copy editor anal-retentive, he'll look that up to see if it's hyphenated. It is, I am, and it's my job. Many people can give dignified one-word answers to ...

Now that the end of August and beginning of the school year loom, English teachers everywhere are girding their loins and lacing their corsets, readying themselves for the noble challenge of making ...

Recently in this space we talked about how, when two punctuation marks bump up against each other, one can sometimes preclude the other. For example, a phrase that would normally be followed by a ...

Sept. 24 is National Punctuation Day, a time to think about all those lowly, little dots, lines, and squiggles that adorn the written word. One of the websites promoting the occasion announces, ...

America is now a nation at war. I’m not talking about the one between rich and poor, migrants and nativists, or Republicans and Democrats. No, this conflict is far more divisive and potentially ...

A LAW in Maine excluded from overtime pay “the canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of” certain products. But is the end of that ...