Punctuation for the phrase "including but not limited to"

When using the phrase "including but not limited to", how should it be punctuated?

When used in the following (no punctuation):

There are many activities including but not limited to running jumping and swimming

My first try:

There are many activities including, but not limited to, running, jumping, and swimming.

Then I thought... maybe I need another one? Is this, or perhaps the previous version correct?

There are many activities, including, but not limited to, running, jumping, and swimming.

Eh, maybe that's too many.

Does this justify a colon?

Is it orthographically correct?

With or without the first comma in parens?

There are many activities(,) including, but not limited to: running, jumping, and swimming.

No? Then what about this?

There are many activities, including - but not limited to - running, jumping, and swimming.

Solution 1:

My choice would be:

There are many activities, including, but not limited to, running, jumping and swimming.

The comma before including shows that a new clause, even if it’s a non-finite clause, is to follow, and the comma before but and after to, indicates a weak interruption to that clause. The comma between running and jumping shows that the two are to be read as part of a list, but no comma is required after jumping, because and makes it superfluous.

Solution 2:

"including but not limited to" is lawyer-speak, and comes from a lawyer's need to make sure that no one can ever, in any way, under any circumstances, think that "including" is all-inclusive. Merriam-Webster online says "including" means "to have (someone or something) as part of a group or total : to contain (someone or something) in a group or as a part of something : to make (someone or something) a part of something." So "including" has as part of its definition the fact that it is not all inclusive. Therefore "including but not limited to" is redundant (unless you are a lawyer writing a contract). Just use "including."

Solution 3:

Comma use is subjective and in most, but not all cases is a style choice. The only place in that sentence where commas are required is in the list at the end (running, jumping, and swimming). The comma that I've used before and is called an Oxford comma and not all speakers feel it's necessary to include it, so that's a style choice as well.

I place punctuation according to how I want the sentence to be read whenever it's not an issue of proper grammar.

For effect I might say:

There are many activities, including, but not limited to, running, jumping, and swimming.

That slows down the tempo.

As for the dashes, I don't think they're appropriate. If you want to use a colon, it would be more like this:

There are many activities, including but not limited to: running, jumping, and swimming.

But all of the following are grammatically correct:

There are many activities, including, but not limited to, running, jumping, and swimming.
There are many activities, including but not limited to, running, jumping, and swimming.
There are many activities including but not limited to running, jumping, and swimming.
There are many activities, including, but not limited to, running, jumping and swimming.
There are many activities, including but not limited to, running, jumping and swimming.
There are many activities including but not limited to running, jumping and swimming.