Grammar Nerds Unite!
Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 8:40 pm
I have a little problem. In pursuing my masters (yeah, screw the cost of law school), and I have to take a pre-requisite rhetorical grammar course. Today we were doing some boring correction assignment, and I chose to use an em dash to separate an appositive statement; however, the prof said that not only is no punctuation needed, but it would be incorrect to use punctuation at all. The statement is, "Management is still taught in most business schools as a bundle of techniques -- such as budgeting and personal relations." I've included the dash where I see the appositive. I've scoured the net (10 minutes of googling), and all I could find was that the dash, or at least a comma, is necessary to separate any absolute or appositive statement in which the information is unnecessary. Now, I do understand that a dash is not the only punctuation that could be used; however, to say that the absence of punctuation is manditory, to me, is a grammatical faux pas.
Now, I understand I could be wrong; however, I don't think there is a high probability here -- especially when this class is centered around the rhetorical uses of grammar. If anything, and she disagrees here as well, the dash should be allowable and grammatically correct in at least a stylistic point of view.
Now, I understand I could be wrong; however, I don't think there is a high probability here -- especially when this class is centered around the rhetorical uses of grammar. If anything, and she disagrees here as well, the dash should be allowable and grammatically correct in at least a stylistic point of view.