Okay, I’ve seen this more than a few times, but it just struck me: there’s a comma missing!

And what, pray tell, am I speaking about? Paragraph 4.a.1 of the GIPS(R) (Global Investment Performance Standards) 2010 edition. We find the following being the required wording:

“[Insert name of FIRM] claims compliance with the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS®) and has prepared and presented this report in compliance with the GIPS standards.”

But isn’t there supposed to be a comma, right after “Standards”? I..e., shouldn’t it be:

“[Insert name of FIRM] claims compliance with the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS®), and has prepared and presented this report in compliance with the GIPS standards.”

The wording before the comma (“[Insert name of FIRM] claims compliance with the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS®))”) could stand alone as a sentence, right? And the second part (“has prepared and presented this report in compliance with the GIPS standards”) assumes the same subject being present (i.e., “[Insert name of FIRM]”), which would make that an independent clause, which could stand alone as a sentence, yes? Therefore, a comma is in order.

But, it’s not there. Can you add it? I would say “no,” since your presentations are to match what’s in the standards, exactly (except, of course, that instead of [Insert name of FIRM] you’d have your firm’s name. Might you insert a [sic], to indicate that you know that it’s wrong, but you’re not going to correct it? I wouldn’t object.

Thoughts? Any English majors (or minors) out there want to chime in? I know we have at least one writer reader who surely knows more about these details than I, and I’m all ears (or more correct, eyes!).

Oh, and please don’t interpret this as a criticism of the standards compilation: as someone who does a lot of writing and publishing, I’ve definitely had more than my share of typos, and grammatical, notational, and spelling errors.