“Needed” is indeterminate between “absolutely necessary” and “useful.” The additional commas aren’t absolutely necessary, but they are useful — they’re up-front cues for the kind of intonation contour most people would give the sentence once they’d thought about it, and they rule out a potential ambiguity (in principle, there could be lectures in the assigned reading and in the lab work as well, and the commas act as scope-limiters). I may be overgeneralizing from my own instincts here, but I think fewer editors would want the commas taken out of your colleagues’ version than would want them added to yours. — Bill Spruiell From: Jason Jones <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> Reply-To: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> Date: Friday, January 16, 2015 at 3:19 PM To: "[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>" <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> Subject: How to Punctuate Here is a practice sentence from Martha Kolln's Rhetorical Grammar: "The lectures in our astronomy class as well as the assigned reading and the lab work make it clear that I am in the wrong class I have decided to drop the course." I believe that only a colon or semicolon is needed between class and I. My colleagues in the English department, however, have all punctuated the sentence this way: "The lectures in our astronomy class, as well as the assigned reading and the lab work, make it clear that I am in the wrong class; I have decided to drop the course." Any help would be appreciated! -- Regards, [http://oi55.tinypic.com/2ppn3vq.jpg] William Jason Jones English Teacher (English III & Comp I/II) Writing Center Director Independence Jr./High School To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/