When a conjunction joins the last two elements in a series, a comma -- known as the serial or series comma or the Oxford comma -- should appear before the conjunction. Chicago strongly recommends this widely practiced usage, blessed by Fowler and other authorities (see bibliog. 1,2), since it prevents ambiguity.Examples of such potential ambiguity are easy to imagine: "With gratitude to my parents, Mother Teresa and the pope." Newspapers see it otherwise. The Associated Press has a "don't use it ... unless you need to use it" approach:
Q: Is clarity essentially the only rule determining when a serial comma should be included?As does the New York Times, whose deputy news editor offers:
A: In a simple series, AP doesn't use a comma before the last item. For a series of complex terms, though, use commas after each for clarity.
I haven't researched the question, but I suspect that journalists' aversion to the additional comma arose in the old days when setting type was laborious and expensive. If you already have an "and," why bother with a comma, too? The practice persists, from habit and perhaps from the sense that fewer commas make prose seem more direct and rapid — qualities we journalists prize in our writing.The Economist concurs: "Do not put a comma before and at the end of a sequence of items unless one of the items includes another and. Thus 'The doctor suggested an aspirin, half a grapefruit and a cup of broth. But he ordered scrambled eggs, whisky and soda, and a selection from the trolley.'"
There are a few cases, however, where we have to make an exception for clarity. For example: The candidate promised lower taxes, higher spending, and ice cream and cake. Without a comma after "spending," the sentence would be a jumble.
In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss wrote: "There are people who embrace the Oxford comma, and people who don't, and I'll just say this: never get between these people when drink has been taken." A poll has been posted, and it's time to throw down.
Serial commas atvall times, dammit.
ReplyDeleteLoved your example of potential ambiguity, Adam.
This is a situation in which being a lawyer changed the way I write. In school, including law school, I think, I learned always to use the Oxford comma. However, at least in my field of law (public finance), enough partners struck the Oxford commas from my drafts that I now never use them unless absolutely necessary for clarity.
ReplyDeleteNever serial commas!
ReplyDeleteI was taught that a comma takes the place of the word "and" in a long list, so unless there's a complex list of items (as in the NY Times example above), you'd never say "and and" to complete a list.
Serial commas forever!
ReplyDeleteI think it was copyeditor Bill Walsh in one of his books who made the point that some conventions are good things because they keep things moving, they aid flow. So no, I may not be likely to be confused by a simple series sans the serial commma ("He ate bread, cheese and figs"), but adding it prevents that splittiest of split-seconds where I might pause in my reading to confirm that, no "cheese and figs" is not a thing and that this is inded three discrete items he ate.
ReplyDeleteI did found it surprising that AP suggests to mix use and non-use, as I was always taught that once you decide on yes/no, consistency is the rule. Either always use or never do.
Vive the serial comma!
ReplyDeleteI loved "Lapsing into a Comma" - if there were a Grammar Rodeo Book Club I'd make it the first month selection.
ReplyDeleteI love the serial comma like Nigel Lythgoe does perky blondes with daddy issues.
ReplyDeleteI am a serial comma enthusiast. One of the things I love about my job is that I get to determine our style guide, and my workplace is, affirmatively and vehemently, a Serial Comma Required Zone.
ReplyDeleteI love me an Oxford comma for the same reason that Tosy articulated. It aids in clarity and helps the reader know exactly when one item has ended, and another item begins. As a reader, an Oxford comma signals, in 'real time', that cheese is a separate item. If you don't use the Oxford comma, you have to wait until the end of the sentence to understand what items are connected and what are separate. Oxford comma forever.
ReplyDeleteCount me team serial comma.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the option for "never use the Oxford comma?" This is the one case where the Orange Bible is talking out of it's hat, I fear, and their silly hypothetical does not help their argument (if you need a comma to parse that dedication then there are other issues at hand than a missing comma).
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely team serial comma, too. I don't know if it's my background in math / science / logic / programming, but I'm always in favor of clarity and lack of ambiguity, and the use of the serial comma is a very easy way to keep things perfectly clear.
ReplyDeleteAs a journalist, I adhere by the AP's standards, and so I am for the elimination of the Oxford comma. But I notice many of my friends and relatives paraphrasing the band Vampire Weekend: "Who gives a F*** about an Oxford comma?"
ReplyDeleteSerial comma foreva!
ReplyDeleteAfter losing the serial comma due to style guide-compliant writing out of undergrad, I appreciate the cleanliness. But considering that the serial comma always clarifies, rather than obfuscates, I'm gradually coming back to it.
ReplyDeleteI heart a serial comma.
ReplyDeleteI, too, am the arbiter of style at my workplace. It is one of my joys that the serial comma lives here.
ReplyDeleteLove the serial comma. And if the list contains comma separated items within the list use the serial semicolon!
ReplyDeleteYou also have to wait until the end of the sentence to figure out if the list is conjunctive or disjunctive. Let's just use a comma and an "and" between each item of the list. No ambiguity or delay there.
ReplyDeleteGiven the title of the book, do we get to count Lynne Truss on the (apparently minority) side of goodness and light or does the use of an ampersand eliminate the issue?
ReplyDeleteMy former life moonlighting as a newspaper copyeditor through college and grad school put me firmly in the anti-Oxford comma camp. In fact, this debate led to fights while writing a book chapter with my co-workers. I won, but they haven't let me forget it.
ReplyDeleteExactly. If it's so confusing you need a comma, fix your sentence. I've been known as a bit of a "comma killer" when editing my friends' work.
ReplyDeleteAndie: Did you say you went to your prom?
ReplyDeleteIona: Yeah, sure.
Andie: Was it terrible?
Iona: It was the worst. But it's supposed to be. But you have to go, right? You don't have to. I mean, it's not a requirement. A girlfriend of mine didn't go to hers. Once in a while she gets a terrible feeling, like something is missing. She checks her purse and her keys, she counts her kids, she goes crazy. And then she realizes that... nothing is missing. She decided it was side effects from skipping the prom.
The italicized section is how I feel if I write a sentence and forget to put in the serial comma.
That's the one! He's talking about hyphenating compound adjectives when he makes that point, not serial commas, but still.
ReplyDeleteThere's some remarkably good stuff in that movie, isn't there? Even if they did royally screw up the ending.
ReplyDeleteSerial comma, and I am willing to back that up with violence. Not gonna lie.
ReplyDeleteShe's apparently not a stickler for using the Oxford comma.
ReplyDeleteCount me in the serial comma camp. My husband would join Isaac in using violence to defend it.
ReplyDeleteCount me in the serial comma camp. My husband would join Isaac in using violence to defend it.
ReplyDeleteWasn't the original ending that she ended up with Duckie? Did they film it? Was it ever released as an extra? Although Duckie does get Kristy Swanson, so he manages ok, I guess.
ReplyDeleteFor the alt ending, just watch Some Kind Of Wonderful.
ReplyDelete