There seems to be a refueled debate about the importance of the Oxford (also known as serial) comma. This debate is nothing new, and many schools teach that using it is a preference (but safer to use than omit it), since no one can seem to agree on if it is necessary or not. For those who don’t know what an Oxford comma is, it is the comma before the conjunction on the last item of a list. If that sounds confusing, here is an example sentence: I like cake, pie, and ice cream. The comma right before the “and” is the Oxford comma. If you wrote: I like cake, pie and ice cream, most people would understand you like the three desserts. However, someone might think you’re saying that you like pie and ice cream together. It’s not a terrible misunderstanding in this situation. Ice cream goes well with either cake or pie. However, omitting the Oxford comma can sometimes greatly alter the intention of your sentence. Here is something one of my friends showed me:
Well, that sentence sure gets a laugh (or at least a smirk), but you can also tell that the intention of the author’s sentence is very confusing (although we should know Maureen Johnson and David Bowie are not at all connected – lol). To be honest, I think all of the debate about it is kind of silly (yet I’m still giving my opinion?). I’m a very comma-happy person, and I use them way more often than necessary, so when given the option, I like to have the extra comma separating items on a list (just see how many commas there were in that sentence!). But beyond preference, the Oxford comma makes writing clearer and less likely to be misunderstood. It’s not like adding in the extra comma is a huge hassle. It’s just one more key on your keyboard or a stroke of your pencil. You’ll choose what you want to do, but the Oxford comma works better for me.
Oh, and in case you’re curious to do a bit more reading on the dear ol’ Oxford comma, check out the book Eats Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss.
That’s all for today. Go comma happy! 🙂
P.S. This is posted on the 9th where I live, so it still counts as the 9th’s post… not that anyone really cares. 😛
Actually, all the dates on my posts are kind of messed up. Oh well!
throughthemiasma 