An Oxford comma changed this court case completely

[niyad]

(my favourite book on this subject: Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference! by Lynne Truss)

An Oxford comma changed this court case completely

(What is an Oxford comma?

Also known as a serial comma, an Oxford comma is the comma between the penultimate and final items in a written list. Here it is, using a classic example from The Gloss: We invited the strippers, JFK, and Stalin.

The comma between JFK and Stalin is the Oxford comma. )







(CNN)If you have ever doubted the importance of the humble Oxford comma, let this supremely persnickety Maine labor dispute set you straight. A group of dairy drivers argued that they deserved overtime pay for certain tasks they had completed. The company said they did not. An appeals court sided with the drivers, saying that the guidelines themselves were made too ambiguous by, you guessed it, a lack of an Oxford comma.

This is what the law says about activities that do NOT merit overtime pay. Pay attention to the first sentence:
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.
That's a lot of things! But if we're getting picky, is packing for shipment its own activity, or does it only apply to the rest of that clause, i.e. the distribution of agricultural produce, etc.?

See, all of this could be solved if there were an Oxford comma, clearly separating "packing for shipment" and "distribution" as separate things! According to court documents, the drivers distribute perishable food, but they don't pack it. Yes, this is the real argument they made. And they really won. "Specifically, if that [list of exemptions] used a serial comma to mark off the last of the activities that it lists, then the exemption would clearly encompass an activity that the drivers perform," the circuit judge wrote.

It did not, and since the judge observed that labor laws, when ambiguous, are designed to benefit the laborers, the case was settled. "For want of a comma, we have this case," the judge wrote.
The irony in this ruling is, there are actual state guidelines on how Maine lawmakers draw up their documents. And they do NOT include Oxford commas! The humanity! To be fair, there is also guidance on how to avoid unclear language that could, say, help an impressively pedantic group of drivers get what they were owed.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/15/health/oxford-comma-maine-court-case-trnd/


and another case where that comma mattered-- a LOT:


Million Dollar Comma
Rumor: A misplaced comma once deprived the U.S. government of $1 million in revenue. TRUE


Origins: In these days of e-mail, Twitter posts, and cell phone text messages, the application of proper punctuation is sometimes viewed as a dying art. Yet as archaic as that practice may sometimes seem, it remains true that in more formal written communications the addition, deletion, or movement of as little as one punctuation mark can change meanings radically and even sometimes expensively.

While some tales about errant commas are naught but invention (such as the yarn about the reply to a jewelry-seeking wife’s inquiry in which the meaning of the response was altered from the negative to the affirmative by the removal of one), it is true that a memorable punctuation error once deprived the U.S. government of an estimated $1 million in revenues.

Contained in the U.S. tariff act of 6 June 1872 was a line intended to exempt from tariffs the importation of semi-tropical and tropical fruit plants. However, a transcription mistake changed the wording of the act so as to shift to the “free” list imports of tropical and semi-tropical fruit rather than those sorts of fruit plants.

The directive was meant to exempt “Fruit plants, tropical and semi-tropical for the purpose of propagation or cultivation.” Its one comma, however, was mysteriously migrated one word to the left during the copying process, thereby rendering the sentence as: “Fruit, plants tropical and semi-tropical for the purpose of propagation or cultivation.”

http://www.snopes.com/legal/comma.asp

[LanternWaste]

1. Like stick shifts and cursive, accurate grammar usage is passe and old fashioned

Like stick shifts and cursive, accurate grammar usage is passe and old fashioned, until it ain't...

[niyad]

2. oh, but we are told that we are being elitist and ridiculous when we actually use, prefer,

and comment upon, proper grammar.

someone asked me once why sloppy grammar usage bothers me so much, whether reading or hearing it. as I explained, it has the same effect as nails on chalkboard to me.

[MANative]

6. I second that opinion!

Poor grammar, spelling, and syntax make me want to tear my hair out! I, too, have been accused of being an elitist snob. If proper English is a crime, then I am forced to profess my guilt.

[Lochloosa]

7. Geezzzz

Someone

[cwydro]

9. I agree.

I see grammar mangled daily here. Omg, and all the misuse of phrases, words, etc. are another peeve.

"Tow the line" drives me up a wall!

[niyad]

12. that one drives me up a wall as well.

[RadiationTherapy]

10. It isn't necessarily elitist, but it is privileged.

"good grammar" - or what most people seem to mean by that - generally comes about due to education, reading, effort, and support. Poverty, vision issues, English as a second language, unaddressed learning issues, and being born and raised among people who speak grammar differently from the predominant forms are just a few ways that one's grammar may not align with expectations.

Legal documents, etc., of course must adhere more rigorously, but I disagree with the notion that "sloppy grammar" is somehow inferior or "improper."

I am a first generation American of a non-English speaking immigrant family - French Canadian - and they all do the best they can.

--Oh, and I support the Oxford comma. It communicates more clearly in my opinion.--

[Coventina]

3. Who gives a f*** about an Oxford Comma?

[RedSpartan]

4. You can pry the Oxford comma from my cold, dead, and correct hands.

[niyad]

5. well-played.

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. I would say an Oxford comma would be superfluous, since there's only one 'or'

When giving a list, you should end it with an 'and' or 'or'. Since it is "...marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of", that single 'or' marks the last in the list.

It also seems to me that CNN phrases this badly. It's not whether "packing for shipment" "is its own activity" or "applies to the rest of that clause, i.e. the distribution of agricultural produce". Everyone agrees that "packing for shipment" has to be about "agricultural produce", "meat and fish products", and "perishable food". It's whether distribution belongs with "shipment" and is something the packing etc. is for, or if distribution is an alternative to "packing". So the options are, in unambiguous writing:

(what the workers argued for: )
The canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, or packing, for shipment or distribution, of:
(1) Agricultural produce;
(2) Meat and fish products; and
(3) Perishable foods.

(what the employers argued for: )
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.

[Denzil_DC]

11. "Oxford comma" is a really confusing term.

In general usage, people seem to use it to refer to the idea that, contrary to what many of us were (wrongly) taught at school, it's acceptable to use a comma before the final "and" in serial lists if the sense of the sentence requires it.

However, in publishing, it has a different meaning (copy-editor writing here).

If a publisher's instructions to me specify use of the "Oxford comma", they mean that its use is mandatory - that is, it must be included in a serial list in every instance, regardless of sense:

In American English, a majority of style guides mandate use of the serial comma, including APA style, The Chicago Manual of Style, The MLA Style Manual, Strunk and White's Elements of Style,[6] and the U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual.

( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma - my bold)

I'm not a fan of its mandatory use (though I obviously have to follow my employer's instructions) as I like the option of whether or not to use a comma in serial lists to avoid ambiguity (though there's an argument that if the inclusion or omission of that comma is so crucial, you'd often be better off finding a clearer way to rephrase the sentence).