Does a phrase like "close to or within X" require commas to set off the "or within"?

Asked Apr 22 '22 at 17:01

Active Apr 22 '22 at 17:01

Viewed 9 times

If I were to say something like:

close to or within X

does it need to be written:

close to, or within, X

I encounter this type of construction in lot in scientific writing and I'm never sure if it needs to be punctuated or if it's just a stylistic preference. I've been googling to no avail because I'm not exactly sure how to describe it.

asked Apr 22 '22 at 17:01

garnerstan

Commas are sometimes added for clarity or to resolve an ambiguity, but with a sentence fragment that can't be determined. Related – Is the phrase, "Use commas sparingly" a valid piece of advice? That question has more links in its own 'Related' panel. – Weather Vane Apr 22 '22 at 17:13
Thanks. I found the answer I was searching for in this thread: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/417198/should-data-is-read-from-and-written-to-disk-have-commas?rq=1 – garnerstan Apr 22 '22 at 17:21
@WeatherVane seeing as I just linked that exact thread and said that it answered my question, yes lol – garnerstan Apr 22 '22 at 17:44
That's why I voted to close as a duplicate: you said it was. The comment (and its upticks) is generated automatically. – Weather Vane Apr 22 '22 at 18:00
Zero offsetting punctuation for parentheticals is a reasonable option when the parenthetical is short and no loss of clarity / no increased difficulty in parsing occur/s. – Edwin Ashworth Apr 22 '22 at 18:33

Does a phrase like "close to or within X" require commas to set off the "or within"?

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