[Grammar] Comma use

[Snappy]

Please tell me whether the underlined comma in the following sentence is required, not required, or optional.

We decided to hold a conference on on Tuesday, December 3, and Wednesday, December 4, 2013.

"Tuesday" and "December 3" are appositive, and I think that the comma is required, but I am not sure.

Similarly, what about the following case?

We decided to make an appeal for opinions from Wednesday, December 11, 2013, to Friday, January 10, 2014, on the subject matter.

 

[5jj]

None of the underlined commas is necessary.

 

[Snappy]

None of the underlined commas is necessary.

Thank you!

 

[Barb_D]

The style guides I follow would disagree.

In those guides, the year is always set off with comma if there is a full date. December 12, 2013, and January 4, 2014, are the best dates for this meeting. (Note "December 2012 and January 2013 were the coldest months on record." - No comma because it's not a full date.)

(For the record, the same goes with a state. Columbia, South Carolina, and Jackson, Mississippi, were the two most commonly missed state capital on the quiz.)


Which goes to show that much of punctuation is a matter of style, not grammar. I believe 5jj would agree with me that if you use it one place, you use it in both, and if you omit it in one place, you omit it in both. Consistency is higher on the list of "rules" than most others.

 

[5jj]

Which goes to show that much of punctuation is a matter of style, not grammar. I believe 5jj would agree with me that if you use it one place, you use it in both, and if you omit it in one place, you omit it in both. Consistency is higher on the list of "rules" than most others.

:up: