Another comma nailed down
Opening up baltimoresun.com’s latest dispatch on the state’s attorney hoo-hah, I came to a stop at the first sentence:
After 15 years in office, a source says Patricia C. Jessamy is expected to concede Friday that Baltimore voters did not give her another term as their top prosecutor.
No doubt you, eagle-eyes, spotted the same thing I did. Without a comma after says to make clear that a source says is a parenthetical phrase, the sentence tells you that it is the source, not Patricia Jessamy, that has been in office for fifteen years.
This little blip with interpolated attribution occurs quite frequently in journalism. I had a quick word with a colleague, and now the website has a source says at the end of the opening sentence, where it is probably happier.
Comments
This is a genuine dangler (though not a dangling participle). But doesn't "a source says" belong at the top? Surely the most important meta-fact about this claim is that it's not publicly confirmed.
Posted by: John Cowan | September 17, 2010 1:31 PM
A close relative of "She was arrested after police said she walked into the store and robbed the clerk at gunpoint."
Posted by: Becky | September 18, 2010 2:59 AM
What's wrong with "According to a source,........."
Posted by: Patricia the Terse | September 18, 2010 6:09 PM