The Oxford Comma

[Angelfishsolo]

If you ever have trouble remembering a minimal contrast for the final serial comma, a.k.a. the Oxford comma, here's a little visual help:

 

[BrumJim]

Another Vampire Weekend thread?

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_i1xk07o4g

 

[Angelfishsolo]

That's very good! I must say I still use it at work, but I don't hardly bother on here no more.

Well tiz a cyclin' forum init, has those spelin nazis got nuding betr 2 do an pic on pepls spelin n grama

 

[threebikesmcginty]

That documentary about Merle Haggard was excellent

 

[Angelfishsolo]

Another Vampire Weekend thread?
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=P_i1xk07o4g

Love it

 

[Mr Phoebus]

If you ever have trouble remembering a minimal contrast for the final serial comma, a.k.a. the Oxford comma, here's a little visual help:

Excellent. A good example of how finicky English can be.

 

[srw]

As a cartoon it's amusing. As a memory aid it's lousy - there's no reason to link the pictures to the position of the comma.

 

[Angelfishsolo]

As a cartoon it's amusing. As a memory aid it's lousy - there's no reason to link the pictures to the position of the comma.

I think it is to do with the pictures themselves and the fact that they trigger the memory. It works for me : )

 

[Yellow Fang]

What if JFK and Stalin were strippers, but so were Mussolini and de Gaulle? Should it be:

'We invited the strippers, JFK, Stalin, Mussolini and de Gaulle', or
'We invited the strippers: JFK, Stalin, Mussolini and de Gaulle'.

 

[swee'pea99]

Why would you want to 'remember' the Oxford comma? It's an absurdity,never respected by more than a few, and fast sliding into well-merited obsolescence.

 

[Red Light]

Oxford's view on the Oxford Comma. Use it when needed to resolve ambiguity.

 

[mr_hippo]

The debate about the Oxford (or Harvard) comma has been going on for decades. Is it necessary? In my, never too humble. opinion – NO! Look at the following sentence:-

I had bacon and eggs and black pudding and sausage and mushrooms for breakfast.

As children, we learn that we do not need to put ‘and’ between every item in a list. We just need a small pause between each item apart from the last one. The ‘and’ just before the final item signifies that the following word is the last item in the list, all other items are ‘paused ’ by inserting a comma and dropping the ‘and’s so the sentence would be:-

I had bacon, eggs, black pudding, sausage and mushrooms for breakfast.

So in spoken English, the ‘and’s are replaced by pauses and in written English by commas. By inserting a final comma before the last ‘and’, you are saying “I had bacon and eggs and black pudding and sausage and and mushrooms for breakfast.” Is this what you want to say?

In the example ‘‘We invited the strippers, jfk[sic], and Stalin.”, the word order leaves a lot to be desired! By putting unnamed parties at the back of the list leads us to believe that JFK, Stalin and strippers were invited. “We invited JFK, Stalin and the strippers.” The problem in the original sentence lies with word order and not punctuation.

 

[Red Light]

“I had bacon and eggs and black pudding and sausage and and mushrooms for breakfast.” Is this what you want to say?

Only if I was very excited about the mushrooms being there.

 

[Angelfishsolo]

Only if I was very excited about the mushrooms being there.

Or you had a stutter!

 

[swee'pea99]

It's simple. The Oxford comma, so called, has its uses. In long, rambly sentences it can aid clarity. But to insist that it always be used - that it is 'correct' - is nonsense on stilts, on a par with insisting that you must never split infinitives or start a sentence with 'and'. The kind of rule that serves only to keep humourless pedants who've never written a thing worth reading in their lives basking in smug superiority.

Compare:

Apples, pears and bananas.

Apples, pears, and bananas.

In what sense, in what way, is the second sentence preferable?

Punctuation is there to make it easier for the reader to grasp what's being said. If it's not doing that, it's just clutter. As ever, if you can get rid of it without causing problems, you should.