Monday, December 4, 2017

grammar - "As Applicable" Concluding a Sentence

I am a technical writer, and often I find concluding a list of requirements with "as applicable" is useful, because not all items in a list of requirements are relevant in all cases.



Consider a sentence such as:





In your application, please include your telephone number, cell phone number, e-mail address, names of maiden aunts, and a list of schools you have attended.




It calls for an "as applicable" at the end because you may not have a maiden aunt, for instance.



Should the phrase be written as:




...schools you have attended, as applicable.





or




... schools you have attended as applicable.




The first has the comma after the list, the second does not. My intuition says you should use the comma, but I cannot think of a reason why. I would like a reason, so I can convince another writer that the comma should be there.

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