The DU Lounge
Related: Culture Forums, Support Forumsbigbrother05
(5,995 posts)Clarity is critical in written messaging.
Codeine
(25,586 posts)Anyone who disagrees must face my fists of punctuative fury!!
Xipe Totec
(43,888 posts)CCExile
(463 posts)rock
(13,218 posts)But I DO appreciate the examples! Thanks.
Sanity Claws
(21,839 posts)I always use the Oxford comma.
sl8
(13,664 posts)BY ARIKA OKRENT
JANUARY 22, 2013
The Oxford comma, so-called because the Oxford University Press style guidelines require it, is the comma before the conjunction at the end of a list. If your preferred style is to omit the second comma in "red, white, and blue," you are aligned with the anti-Oxford comma faction. The pro-Oxford comma faction is more vocal and numerous in the US, while in the UK, anti-Oxford comma reigns. (Oxford University is an outsider, style-wise, in its own land.) In the US, book and magazine publishers are generally pro, while newspapers are anti, but both styles can be found in both media.
The two main rationales for choosing one style over the other are clarity and economy. Each side has invoked both rationales in its favor. Here are some quotes that have served as shots exchanged in the Oxford comma wars.
Pro: "She took a photograph of her parents, the president, and the vice president."
This example from the Chicago Manual of Style shows how the comma is necessary for clarity. Without it, she is taking a picture of two people, her mother and father, who are the president and vice president. With it, she is taking a picture of four people.
Con: "Those at the ceremony were the commodore, the fleet captain, the donor of the cup, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Jones."
This example from the 1934 style book of the New York Herald Tribune shows how a comma before "and" can result in a lack of clarity. With the comma, it reads as if Mr. Smith was the donor of the cup, which he was not.
...
More at link.
empedocles
(15,751 posts)4dog
(502 posts)use or nonuse of that comma.
Oxford Comma can't fix that effed-up sentence.
It's still an effed-up sentence.
ProfessorGAC
(64,827 posts)I was not buying the reasoning for the "con" rating. The sentence is confusing no matter how many commas one adds.
mopinko
(69,984 posts)it took me a long time to figure out this debate, because to me that comma is just obvious, and like any other comma.
Polly Hennessey
(6,785 posts)It is part of my DNA.
whopis01
(3,491 posts)niyad
(113,038 posts)iluvtennis
(19,826 posts)jayschool2013
(2,311 posts)Macy's commands you to "Welcome Back Students!"
Macy's greets students with "Welcome Back, Students!"
Of course, they got it wrong.
kairos12
(12,841 posts)ToxMarz
(2,162 posts)Quemado
(1,262 posts)n/t.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,578 posts)...eats shoots and leaves, or
...eats shoots, and leaves or
...eats, shoots, and leaves.
womanofthehills
(8,657 posts)Ron Obvious
(6,261 posts)Well, I'll be.
RandomAccess
(5,210 posts)ailsagirl
(22,885 posts)In a word: clarity
I always use the serial comma
RobinA
(9,884 posts)I always used the Oxford comma...at least most of the time. It just made the writing flow a little better to me. I was writing a paper in an undergraduate class that I was taking for my own enrichment, I already had my BS, and was in a "using it" mood. The professor, who would always pick on people's papers on arcane grammatical issues, sometimes wrongly, took a red pen to all my Oxford commas. I knew that the comma was a matter of preference and took strong exception to his red penning my perfectly valid choice to use it. Ever since I use it all the time, all the while thinking, "Take THAT, Professor Greenfield." That guy pissed me off in so many ways.
raging moderate
(4,292 posts)Grammar is logic in action. When I entered graduate school, I was shocked by the poor grammar used by many of my fellow graduate students.
PJMcK
(21,988 posts)Long live the Oxford comma.
And let's not forget the much-maligned semi-colon. It's a wonderful tool in the writer's arsenal.
krispos42
(49,445 posts)Let's eat, Grandma!
Commas save lives.
TheBlackAdder
(28,163 posts).
But, MLA, APA, Strunk & White and most others mandate the serial (Oxford) comma.
Eff the haters!
Oxford Commas Forever!
.
malthaussen
(17,175 posts)If it tends toward confusion, it shouldn't be used. I do not think the rule should be inflexible.
-- Mal
Totally Tunsie
(10,885 posts)[link:https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/16/us/oxford-comma-lawsuit.html?_r=0|
Re: Oakhurst Dairy, Portland, ME
"The debate over commas is often a pretty inconsequential one, but it was anything but for the truck drivers. Note the lack of Oxford comma also known as the serial comma in the following state law, which says overtime rules do not apply to:
The canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of:
(1) Agricultural produce;
(2) Meat and fish products; and
(3) Perishable foods.
Does the law intend to exempt the distribution of the three categories that follow, or does it mean to exempt packing for the shipping or distribution of them?"
Yavin4
(35,420 posts)When will this ever end?
Yavin4
(35,420 posts)The Devil? Naahhh. Even the Devil has standards.