The Oxford comma | #12

Reasons why the Oxford comma is correct and anyone who says otherwise is destined to be unsuccessful. Something of a joke.

Apologies if you are seeing this in an email for the second time, there was a mishap in scheduling 👋

---

Context

Let me introduce you to a centuries old (that’s not an exaggeration) debate about a small but powerful piece of punctuation in the English language. ‘The Oxford Comma’. The Oxford comma is the final comma in a list of three or more things. Most commonly the one before ‘and’ in the sentence. For example if I write:

‘Yesterday on the train I saw my reflection, a fool, and a pint of beer.’ 

The Oxford comma is the one that comes after the word ‘fool’. There are idiots people out there who say that this is incorrect, or at least unnecessary, that the sentence should be:

‘Yesterday on the train I saw my reflection, a fool and a pint of beer.’ 

The arguments

These people are wrong. Read that sentence again if you didn’t spot the problem already. In other words it says:

‘Yesterday on the train I saw my reflection, my reflection was that of a fool and a pint of beer.’

Rude! 

Those idiots people who argue against the Oxford comma say that simply rephrasing the unclear sentence solves the problem without the need for more punctuation. They say that using the Oxford comma is over-correct, that readers would know I wouldn’t be referring to my reflection in that way, the conjunction (the ‘and’) is good enough.

Now you understand the root of the issue, let me tell you why people who don’t advocate the Oxford comma will always amount to nothing. 

Speech patterns

When you vocalise a list, when you say the words out loud, you naturally add the Oxford comma. List five things in front of you right now out loud. If someone looks at you funny, look funny back at them. I’ll do it with you. 

‘A water bottle, a laptop, a phone, a seat, and some lasagna.’ 

See, Oxford comma. 

Clarity

The example earlier makes this point for me. When I write I want to be able to control the language I’m using, use my words to guide the narrative as much as I can so the reader most clearly understands my meaning. If I wanted to say my reflection was a fool holding a beer, I would. But if that was my intention I wouldn’t be using a list, I would be in the pub. 

Work smart, not hard

Finally, and this is my favourite, the argument most commonly used against the Oxford comma is ‘why not rephrase the sentence without the comma to remove the confusion and have less punctuation.’ This is what shows most clearly the lack of character these people possess. 

This argument advocates for mediocrity. Effectively they want you to either leave the ambiguity in, to throw your hands up in the air and lead your reader into a cognitive mess, or they want you to rephrase your words to fit their will despite a perfectly good tool. Which is just making more work for no reason. 

The use of the Oxford comma is a sign of an intelligent person. 

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

Conclusion

That’s it. And yes, before you ask I didn’t have much inspiration for what to write about for this one. Here’s the extent of the research I did:

The Oxford comma is technically called a ‘serial comma’, or ‘series comma’, but became known as the ‘Oxford comma’ because of its use in the Oxford University Press’ style guide which has required the use of an Oxford comma since 1905. 

Just remember to use the Oxford comma, it’s good grammar, correct and helpful. 😉

---

Thanks for reading. The best way to support this newsletter is to sign up if you haven’t already, share it around, and get your friends to sign up too. That’s what this lovely purple button is for …