Punctuation with complete or incomplete list of items

Asked Dec 07 '14 at 12:34

Active Dec 07 '14 at 12:34

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Here's a situation:

John, Anne, Jake, Pete...they are all from the same class.

Is there any way to punctuate this sentence without using the ellipsis? Is an "and" necessary before the last item (here, Pete) in this kind of a list? What would be the best way to punctuate this sentence in formal writing, e.g. a book manuscript?

asked Dec 07 '14 at 12:34

TheLearner

And certainly isn't necessary -- there are lots of posts mentioning asyndeton. You might use a colon to separate the list from its description. – Andrew Leach Dec 07 '14 at 12:48
Are you unfamiliar with the use of etc? – Blessed Geek Dec 07 '14 at 13:03
@BlessedGeek Sorry but I don't think etc. is necessary here. The list is complete. – TheLearner Dec 07 '14 at 13:08
Make up your mind. Is the list complete or not? If complete, use an and before the last item. If not, use etc after the last comma. – Blessed Geek Dec 07 '14 at 13:14
This is more about the ellipsis than "and" or "etc". – TheLearner Dec 07 '14 at 13:33
@BlessedGeek I don't know how else to say this: The list is COMPLETE. – TheLearner Dec 07 '14 at 13:33

Punctuation with complete or incomplete list of items

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