Court of Law Rules The Oxford Comma Necessary

[Orrex]

Story here.

Personally I'm not militant about the comma. I say use it when it reduces ambiguity, but beyond that I don't have strong feelings about it.

However, I love watching the fur fly in these debates, so...

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. I always use it. What's the downside ?

[Orrex]

3. None whatsoever. And, as a bonus...

you get to piss off people who unilaterally insist that it's superfluous!

It can be argued, I suppose, that the sometimes-extraneous comma can lead to issues of formatting and conservation of space in publications, but I'm not convinced. If it's that big a concern, use a very slightly smaller font in your headline, and you'll free more than enough space for a hundred extra commas.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. Enjoy

https://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicamisener/commas-save-lives?utm_term=.nnEDqRPKn#.ps3B5YwQz

[Orrex]

6. That's excellent!

[Weekend Warrior]

18. That's great. nt.

[cyclonefence]

26. Wonderful

Beats hell out of "Let's eat grandma."

[Bettie]

10. I do too

because it is automatic in my brain. If I don't put it in, it looks wrong to me.

[Sailor65x1]

2. I remember the old saying:

"There are people who embrace the Oxford comma and those who don't, and I'll just say this: never get between these people when drink has been taken"

[fleur-de-lisa]

5. Commas . . .

I, put commas, in, weird places, so that, you, will read, this, like, William Shatner.

[Orrex]

7. The world, would be a better place, if we all read, like William Shatner

[Dr. Strange]

9. If I were going to make a movie...

I would insist on casting the greatest actors of our generation, Gilbert Gottfried and William Shatner.






You see? This is why we need the Oxford comma.

[obamanut2012]

8. The AP anti-OC stance makes literally NO SENSE to me

[RedSpartan]

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

[trotsky]

16. Hahah, yes!!! n/t

[Buns_of_Fire]

12. That that is is that that is not is not is that it it is

Period.

[Lochloosa]

13. What was that?

[Buns_of_Fire]

14. A punctuation exercise (used in the movie "Charly").

Add punctuation so it makes sense. Try it before looking at Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That_that_is_is_that_that_is_not_is_not_is_that_it_it_is

[eppur_se_muova]

17. Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

Note the illustration(!) in the Wikipedia article.

[Buns_of_Fire]

19. That's neat. I hope Steve Miller manages to incorporate it into Rump's next speech. nt

[kairos12]

15. They can pry the Oxford comma from my cold, ink-stained hands.

[Bad Thoughts]

20. The concern for the Oxford Comma has led to over-correction

Too often I see that someone, has placed a comma between the subject and verb.

[Voltaire2]

21. This is idiocy, bullshit and nonsense!

[RobinA]

22. I'm Not Militant Either

except in my own writing. I had an English professor in college who would take off if we used the Oxford comma, which I did if I felt it made sense. It infuriated me that he would take off for something that was actually correct, not to mention he was a bit of a dick in other ways. So now I use it EVERY TIME, thinking to myself each time, There's your Oxford comma Dr. Greenfield, bite me. I'm 60, so the class was a long time ago. I know it's childish, but some minor grudges are just fun to indulge.

[Stuart G]

23. Congratulation to Orrex....incredible post...brand new topic..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't think that I have ever seen a discussion on the The Oxford Comma

....I have seen discussions on many, many, many, many topics..but never, never, never, on when to use a comma, and when not to use a comma.....And of course, this one is of extreme importance...that is, it is of great importance, and it needs to be discussed at length. And, when that discussion is thru, we need another discussion on the topic, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another.

Do you get the picture?.

[Denzil_DC]

24. In publishing, "Oxford comma" has a specific meaning.

It means that the comma in serial lists is mandatory - always Tom, Dick, and Harry rather than Tom, Dick and Harry - in all circumstances.

It was adopted by publishers (initially at Oxford University Press, then adopted by others) as a cost-cutting measure - editors could ensure that the comma after the "and" in serial lists was always present without worrying about context:

For a century it has been part of OUP style to retain or impose this last serial (or series) comma consistently, … but it is commonly used by many other publishers both here and abroad, and forms a routine part of style in US and Canadian English. ... Given that the final comma is sometimes necessary to prevent ambiguity, it is logical to impose it uniformly, so as to obviate the need to pause and gauge each enumeration on the likelihood of its being misunderstood – especially since that likelihood is often more obvious to the reader than the writer.

The Oxford Style Manual (2002), pp. 121-122

In common usage, "Oxford comma" seems to be taken to mean the optional inclusion of the comma before "and", depending on meaning. That's not what publishers mean by the term.

I dislike its mandatory use because it means its deliberate optional inclusion to disambiguate certain phrases is impossible, but if I'm instructed to use the Oxford comma in my work, I obviously have to do so.

Funnily enough, in school in the UK (often the worst place to learn about rules of English, in my experience, as I had a lot of unlearning to do when I trained in copy-editing and proofreading), teachers insisted that you should never use a comma before "and".

I can only assume they hadn't read many books, as if you apply that firm rule, then you can't use "and" to separate clauses, which isn't how English usually works in practice. Quite a number of authors I've worked with over the years seem to have internalized the same schoolteachers' rules as I did.

[MoonRiver]

25. I have never understood why they eliminated it.

Commas help separate ideas, and sequence events. I still use it a lot of the time, but sometimes don't, because it is now ok not to.

[Orrex]

27. I'm about the same

If I have a concrete rule about it, it's this: use it when it improves clarity, or when its omission would cause problematic ambiguity.

I can't even imagine a phrase in which its inclusion would be confusing, but I can think of plenty in which leaving out the comma will cause semantic chaos.

[MoonRiver]

28. Same here.

OT, a little bit, but it drives me crazy when people write long posts and do not use paragraphs! No matter how well written the piece appears to be, I usually give up and click off after a few sentences. Its so simple to use paragraphs, but some are just too lazy, I suppose.

[OilemFirchen]

29. I rarely use the Oxford Comma.

So sue me.

[MoonRiver]

30. It just means people might not be able to completely understand what you're writing.

Of course that all depends on context.

[OilemFirchen]

32. My post was in jest. However...

contract language is often intentionally verbose. This is a prime example not of misuse of the Oxford Comma but, rather, inattention to detail. Here's the clause in question:

The canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of:

The entire kerfuffle could have been avoided had it been written thus:

The canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or packing for distribution of:

That's the nub, crux, heart (,) and meat of the matter.



On edit: Never mind. I've been simultaneously chatting with a representative from Home Depot and, accordingly, have lost my fucking mind. The example I've provided proves just the opposite of my intent. Perhaps I'll try again later.

[MoonRiver]

33. Ok, lol!

[Orrex]

31. As long as you use it when it's helpful, then no problem

In past discussions, I have seen a bizarre smugness in some who refuse to use the Oxford comma on... Principle, I guess?

When asked about situations in which omitting the comma will result in confusion, they generally harumph something along the lines of "that's the reader's problem." Well, that's lovely.

I know that that's not your stance on this, but that's the "militant" part I mentioned in the OP.