The Commas, etc., in Your Copy Editor's Head!

I hope everyone had a fantabulous weekend!!! Mondays tend to…well, they just suck. So we are going to have a very simple comma lesson today. YEAH!!!! And for all my English tutoring students – “simple” does not mean you don’t need to study!! ;) 

Today I am just going to talk about comma usage with the abbreviations “etc.” and “et al.”

Etc. (et cetera) means “and others of the same kind.” 

For example:

1. It takes the work of many people such as authors, copy editors, proofreaders, publishers, etc., to publish a book.

Unless it falls at the end of the sentence, you always place a comma before AND after etc. Simple, right?

Now, et al. means “and others.” It is the abbreviation for et alia (neuter), et alii (masculine), and et aliae (feminine). You should place a comma before and after et al. just as you do etc. UNLESS it is preceded by only one item.

For example:

1. K. Thomas, R. Martin, et al., contributed to editing the technical document for their boss (more than one).
2. Thomas et al. contributed to editing the technical document for their boss (only one person’s name is listed).

You should also note that neither etc. nor et al. are italicized. This is a common error I find when editing materials.

AND, that’s it!! Told you I was going to ease you into Monday. =P

Have a great week!! We’ll chat again tomorrow.

Your copy editor,

Laura