Three More Questions

[rosalinda-143.livejournal.com]

Okay, so three more questions that have me confused...

Firstly, commas:

I know all the basics of a comma. What confuses me is how I should use it when listing something out. To word that as a question... well I'll just give you an example and see if I can word it as a question.

Would I write it like this?

I had my five cats: Amber, Richard, Arthur, Camille, and Mr. Mew.

Or this?

I had my five cats: Amber, Richard, Arthur, Camille and Mr. Mew.

I'm pretty sure I was told that I needed a comma before the and if I want the reader to know that Camille and Mr. Mew are two separate cats. But now I'm just not so sure anymore. Any suggestions.

Secondly, capitalization:

Again I know the basics. And again I'll just give you an example.

Would I write it like this?

"Hi, how are you?" He asked.

Or this?

"Hi, how are you?" he asked.

I know that when you end with a comma it doesn't have to be capitalized, but I see the second choice all the time in books, so it had me wondering...

And thirdly, more on capitalization (this kind of ties in with the second question):

My heart gave a wild lurch, I exclaimed, “Holey crap!” And jumped back my heart now racing.

Or...

My heart gave a wild lurch, I exclaimed, "Holey crap!" and jumped back my heart now racing.

Does it depend on the comma after "exclaimed" or the punctuation that come after the "crap" on whether or not I capitalize "and"?

Any answers are much appreciated! Thank you in advanced for listening and answering all my question! I know I must be annoying, but I'm still new to this correct grammar thing.

Thanks again!

peace.love.happiness.

~ J

Comments

[words-of-ela.livejournal.com]

I'm not an expert in grammar, but since I have so many, many lovely grammar books, I think I might be able to help.

The first case:

Nowadays both sentences are correct. With items in a series the final comma is often omitted, especially where this wouldn't result in ambiguity (even though William Strunk wouldn't agree).

The second one:

The correct one is: "Hi, how are you?" he asked. That's because tags are always part of the same sentence as the dialogue (even when you have ! and?).

The third one:

In majority of books that I read the similar examples would treat dialogue as an inserted sentence (sorry I can't remember how it's called in English), so it would be:

My heart gave a wild lurch, I exclaimed, "Holey crap," and jumped back my heart now racing.

But when I wrote sentence like that my beta would always rearranged it different (and I always forget to ask why) and I can't find any grammar rule that would apply for this kind of situation, so I'm lost about this one. Sorry.

Hope somebody else would know about this. I would like to hear which one is correct and why, too.