I’ve been preparing a manuscript for editing, and it has gotten me thinking
about commas. Normally, I only use them where a speaker would naturally pause or
when necessary to avoid confusion.
But I’m a fanatical supporter of the Oxford comma.
For those of you who don’t know what the Oxford comma is, it’s the
comma that comes before the conjunction that introduces the last item or phrase
in a series. For example, this sentence uses an Oxford comma: The American flag
is red, white, and blue. This one doesn’t: The American flag is red, white and
blue. It’s called the Oxford comma because Oxford University’s stylebook says
to put it in. (It’s also called the Harvard comma, for a similar reason, or the
serial comma.)
Technically, the Oxford comma is optional. But it grates on me when it
is left out. So why do I believe it is so important?
The first rule of writing is clarity, and there are many times when a
sentence is clear without the Oxford comma. “The American flag is red, white
and blue” is an example. On the other hand, it is easy to write a sentence
where the absence of the Oxford comma creates ambiguity. If that’s intentional,
fine, but it usually isn’t.
Consider the sentences in the graphic at the head of this post. “Betty
went camping with her sisters, Debbie and Carol” could mean that there were at
least five people on the camping trip: Betty, two or more of her sisters,
Debbie, and Carol. Or it could mean that there were three people: Betty and her
two sisters, whose names are Debbie and Carol. If you consistently use the
Oxford comma, the reader will know which you mean.
Of course, it is possible to rearrange the sentence to clarify its
meaning without using the Oxford comma. If there were five people on the
camping trip, you can say,” Betty went camping with Debbie, Carol and Betty’s
sisters. But why go to the trouble of rearranging the sentence if you can
clarify it by simply adding that last comma?
Or consider this sentence: “My favorite ice cream flavors are caramel,
white chocolate and orange and cream.” The use of the extra “and” indicates
that one of the flavors has two parts to its name, but is it white chocolate
and orange or orange and cream? The use of the Oxford comma clarifies the
sentence, making clear that the flavors are either “caramel, white chocolate
and orange, and cream” or “caramel, white chocolate, and orange and cream.”
Then there’s the third example. “Still half asleep, Jeff got dressed,
made toast and put on deodorant.” Did Jeff put the deodorant on himself or the
toast? Grammatically, there is only one way to read the sentence since there
wouldn’t be any reason to put a comma after “dressed” unless it were a series
of three phrases. So, read correctly, the sentence means that Jeff put the
deodorant on himself. But someone who is reading quickly might miss that nicety
and read the last two items in the series as one. After all, who knows what
Jeff might do when he is half asleep? An Oxford comma before the last phrase in
the series slows the reader down and makes the meaning clear.
Although clarity is the first rule of writing, consistency is also
important, especially since knowing how someone writes helps the reader find clarity
in the writer’s sentences. And because there are times when I need the Oxford
comma for clarity, I choose to use it all the time for consistency.
Still, the Oxford comma is technically optional. If you choose not to
use it, I won’t unfriend you.
But I will let you know when your sentences are unclear.
__________
This is a revision of a January 12, 2015 post.
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