The Oxford comma—also called the serial comma—is one of the most divisive linguistic devices in the English language. Unlike when you should use an apostrophe and when you shouldn’t, this “rule” isn’t precise. As Grammarly editor Brittney Ross says, “Oxford commas are like the Ugg boots of the punctuation world. People either love them or hate them or don’t know what they are.”
The Oxford comma is the comma placed before the conjunction at the end of a list of things. For example, in “the flag was red, white, and blue”, the Oxford comma would be the one appearing before “and”. Proponents of the Oxford comma say it's necessary for removing ambiguity in sentences.
The use of the Oxford comma is a matter of style, meaning that some publishing styles stipulate its use while others don’t. In other words, it’s not incorrect to use the Oxford comma or not to use it, but it is advisable to be consistent one way or the other. AP style—based on The Associated Press Stylebook, the style guide that American news organizations generally adhere to—does not use the Oxford comma.
Many opponents of the Oxford comma claim that it makes a piece of writing sound more pretentious and stuffy, and that it can make things seem cluttered and redundant. Many magazine publishers renounce its use as well, because sentences loaded with commas take up valuable page space.
When my son was in high school, a couple of his teachers were pro-Oxford comma and a couple were against. As he wrote his senior research paper drafts, I did some proof reading (I am in the pro-OC camp), and his teacher marked up his paper citing overuse of commas. I just told him to learn to play the game, figure out future teachers’ comma preferences, know the publishing style the teacher favors, and go with the flow. Who would have thought one little punctuation mark could cause so much controversy?
I submit a monthly department activity report. The person it goes to recently changed, and there was a memo that came out not to use OC. I couldn't help but think aren't there more important things to fuss about.
ReplyDeleteAttorneys have preferred the OC because it removes ambiguity but now the tides may be turning. It's probably on its way to antiquity.
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