Learn English – How should this sentence be punctuated

commaspunctuation

I'm not sure how to punctuate the following sentence:

Besides the managers, Pete, John and Eric, also the secretary, Mary, came along to the meeting.

I think I messed up completely with comma usage. My ideas to fix it are the following

  1. Besides the managers (Pete, John and Eric), also the secretary (Mary) came along to the meeting.
  2. Besides the managers -Pete, John and Eric- also the secretary -Mary- came along to the meeting.

The first one looks good, but I have the feeling that the parenthesis disrupts the flow of the reading. The second one looks not very slick.

What do you suggest as punctuation for this sentence?

Best Answer

You don't need so many commas. You can say

Besides the managers Pete, John and Eric, the secretary Mary came along to the meeting.

Related Topic