Comma Use Confusion

  1. She can become enraged, even murderous at times.

  2. She can become enraged, even murderous, at times.

Which of these is correct and why?


Solution 1:

To clarify, the "slightly different meanings" referred to by @AndyBonner in a comment may in fact be simply a matter of opinion (though the meaning probably doesn't depend on whether it's Monday or not! :)

To my mind, if the comma / pause is not included, this more strongly implies it's more likely that she'll become murderous (than if the comma / pause is present, in which case the possibility of her becoming "murderous" is more explicitly reduced to a parenthetical mention of a peripherally-relevant extreme case).

This is because we tend to assume that "parenthetical" clauses aren't necessarily very significant (they can after all normally be removed without seriously affecting the meaning of the remaining text).