The word “worse” is introduced to characterize what follows. It is a short form of “what is worse.” It requires a comma before it to cut it off from “or,” and a comma after it to cut it off from what follows. When cut off, the sense relation between “whim” and “economy” is made unmistakable. But sentences of this type are, as stated above, almost invariably punctuated wrong; and the sense relations are thus obscured. The wrong punctuation is as follows:
18-1. It is a matter of whim, or worse, of economy.
In the next illustrative sentence (No. 18A) the new word is simply one that more nearly expresses the writer’s meaning. The comma before “or” is clearly required; but why put a comma after “easier”?
18A. It belongs in the lower, or, as it would be better to call it, the easier, grades of work.
The comma after “easier” acts with the comma before “or” to suspend what comes between “lower” and “grades,” just as a similar group of words is suspended in Sentence 3-1.
OR and AND
The relations expressed by “or” and “and” are so nearly identical that every rule or principle of punctuation requiring a mark before one of them requires it before the other in similarly formed sentences. Only an occasional use of “and” expresses a shade of meaning like that expressed by “or” in the above sentences. For this reason it may be well to caution the student against the common error of using a comma before “and” in a sentence formed like No. 18A, but not like it in meaning:
18A-1. We are not willing to give our sanction to the broad and, when applied in a case like that at bar, harsh rule of instruction.
APPOSITIVES
A class of words called “appositives” falls under the classification and reasoning we have been considering; and an example or two will suffice to show this: