The Oxford Comma

[Purpelia]

Is this one of those strange quirks of the english language nobody but linguists from england care about?

[Purgatio]

Is this one of those strange quirks of the english language nobody but linguists from england care about?

I'm not a linguist from England, but I will say when I was a student from Oxford the professors there really did insist on the Oxford comma in all essays. Not that it was an issue, the Oxford comma is just grammatically correct.

[Greed and Death]

Either way, it's going to be a hell of a party.

Comma placement is very important as well. For example.

Help uncle Jack, off the horse.
Or
Help uncle, jack off the horse.

Big difference between the two.

I'm now contemplating how exactly the request made in the second sentence would help Uncle.

If he were involved in horse breeding.

[Northwest Slobovia]

I absolutely prefer the Oxford comma, and use it unless some paying client explicitly insists on not doing so.



How to Butcher Your Own Writing so it's Ugly and Ungraceful, also known as the AP Stylebook, attempts to disagree. So do those who slavishly insist on writing that follows its ugly dictates. I think both of those have no taste or sense.

Language is about more than raw meaning. It should flow well and be pleasant to read.

I am not a fan of the APA either. Generally I find any "rule book" on writing to be more of a series of guide posts rather than rules. In that regard I am a fan of Strunk's writing guide.

There's a big difference between style, which is a matter of taste, and grammar, punctuation, and spelling, which are not. I note that despite denying language is a set of rules, you're playing by all the strange ones English has about grammar and spelling.

[Eahland]

I normally use the Oxford comma when writing. It can reduce ambiguity, and there's very little downside to using it. A lot of AP's recommendations are aimed at the specific requirements of print newspapers, where you want to save as much space as practical, because column-inches are precious. I don't have those concerns - an extra byte here and there isn't going to break my bandwidth budget, and, due to the way computers store files, it's likely to make literally no difference in on-disc storage size.

I usually don't use it in machine-generated text, though, because it requires an extra test to distinguish between a list of two items and a list of more than two items. Without the Oxford comma, you can just always omit the comma before the last list item.

Comma placement is very important as well. For example.

Help uncle Jack, off the horse.
Or
Help uncle, jack off the horse.

Big difference between the two.

It's as much a capitalization issue. There's a significant difference in meaning between:

Help your uncle jack off the horse. (Your unnamed uncle requires assistance in masturbating a horse.)
Help your uncle jack, off the horse. (Your unnamed uncle requires some assistance in operating a lifting mechanism, also put down the horse.)
Help your Uncle Jack off the horse. (Your Uncle Jack requires assistance either in getting down from the horse, or killing it.)
Help your Uncle Jack, off the horse. (Your Uncle Jack requires assistance in some unspecified task, also put down the horse.)
Help your uncle, jack off the horse. (Your unnamed uncle requires assistance in some unspecified task, also masturbate the horse.)

[Rojava Free State]

How has this gone on so long

[Purpelia]

Is this one of those strange quirks of the english language nobody but linguists from england care about?

I'm not a linguist from England, but I will say when I was a student from Oxford the professors there really did insist on the Oxford comma in all essays. Not that it was an issue, the Oxford comma is just grammatically correct.

I am not sure how those two are different. I mean, basically the british upper class cares about this sort of stuff and the rest of us in the world don't even know it exists. At least that's my impression. Than again english is only like #5 from the top on my list of languages in order of quality of my knowledge (not that you should be able to tell hopefully) so I might be wrong.

[Kowani]

. Language is not nor has it ever been a st of rules.

Self awareness isn’t your thing, huh?

[Great Aletia]

I am a fan of it.

[Greed and Death]

I am not a fan of the APA either. Generally I find any "rule book" on writing to be more of a series of guide posts rather than rules. In that regard I am a fan of Strunk's writing guide.

There's a big difference between style, which is a matter of taste, and grammar, punctuation, and spelling, which are not. I note that despite denying language is a set of rules, you're playing by all the strange ones English has about grammar and spelling.

Guide post not rules. I have no Qualms about breaking them when it suits my Purpose.

[US-SSR]

Stop me if you've heard this before: a panda walks into a restaurant, orders a meal, finishes it, pulls a gun, fires it into the ceiling, and heads for the door. "Hey, aren't you going to pay for that? And what's with the gunplay," asks the proprietor. "I'm a panda. Look it up in the dictionary." The dictionary says: "panda, n., a bear native to China. Eats shoots and leaves."

[Xmara]

I always use the Oxford comma. I like to make sure I’m specific. Plus it’s how I was taught in elementary school.

[Bear Stearns]

One thing that always took me awhile to adjust to is that the Oxford comma is not used in business writing.

[Necroghastia]

One thing that always took me awhile to adjust to is that the Oxford comma is not used in business writing.

Be the change you want to see in the world.

[Sverigesriket]

I normally use the Oxford comma when writing. It can reduce ambiguity, and there's very little downside to using it. A lot of AP's recommendations are aimed at the specific requirements of print newspapers, where you want to save as much space as practical, because column-inches are precious. I don't have those concerns - an extra byte here and there isn't going to break my bandwidth budget, and, due to the way computers store files, it's likely to make literally no difference in on-disc storage size.

I usually don't use it in machine-generated text, though, because it requires an extra test to distinguish between a list of two items and a list of more than two items. Without the Oxford comma, you can just always omit the comma before the last list item.

Comma placement is very important as well. For example.

Help uncle Jack, off the horse.
Or
Help uncle, jack off the horse.

Big difference between the two.

It's as much a capitalization issue. There's a significant difference in meaning between:

Help your uncle jack off the horse. (Your unnamed uncle requires assistance in masturbating a horse.)
Help your uncle jack, off the horse. (Your unnamed uncle requires some assistance in operating a lifting mechanism, also put down the horse.)
Help your Uncle Jack off the horse. (Your Uncle Jack requires assistance either in getting down from the horse, or killing it.)
Help your Uncle Jack, off the horse. (Your Uncle Jack requires assistance in some unspecified task, also put down the horse.)
Help your uncle, jack off the horse. (Your unnamed uncle requires assistance in some unspecified task, also masturbate the horse.)

I have never heard the word off used to describe euthanasia. Anyways, this is also a problem in German - I have never learned it but I saw an image comparing two otherwise identical sentences changed by capitalization. I don't know how Germans speak the difference too, maybe it's contextual.

[Nuclear Wastelands]

Whenever Possible, I always use the oxford comma.

It helps clear up confusion on my end, because lists are weird, and even as a native english speaker, I still mess them up.

[Northwest Slobovia]

I have never heard the word off used to describe euthanasia.

It's usually meant to mean "murder".

[Purgatio]

I'm not a linguist from England, but I will say when I was a student from Oxford the professors there really did insist on the Oxford comma in all essays. Not that it was an issue, the Oxford comma is just grammatically correct.

I am not sure how those two are different. I mean, basically the british upper class cares about this sort of stuff and the rest of us in the world don't even know it exists. At least that's my impression. Than again english is only like #5 from the top on my list of languages in order of quality of my knowledge (not that you should be able to tell hopefully) so I might be wrong.

Thats my point, its not a 'British upper class' thing, its a grammar thing, its a rule intended to prevent confusion of meaning and clarify what you are saying. That can have consequences. Most notably, in a legal context, if I were to draft a contract, and I wrote a clause in the contract saying "the Hirer shall not be liable to indemnify for any damage arising from any acts or ommissions of the subcontractors, the entertainers and the interior designers", it would be understood to have a very different meaning than if I wrote "the Hirer shall not be liable to indemnify for any damage arising from any acts or omissions of the subcontractors, the entertainers, and the interior designers". In the former, you are talking about the "entertainers" and "interior designers" as exhaustive examples of "subcontractors", in the latter you have clarified that the "subcontractors", "entertainers", and "interior designers" are entirely separate categories and you are excluding liability arising from all three groups.

Just as a matter of conveying and effectively communicating meaning, the use of the Oxford comma makes a big difference in what message comes across. Its about precision of language.

[Cetacea]

Finally, a topic worthy of concern.

The Oxford comma provides clarity when doing groups of items that can be ambiguous. Use the Oxford comma.

(Image)

Either way, it's going to be a hell of a party.

Comma placement is very important as well. For example.

Help uncle Jack, off the horse.
Or
Help uncle, jack off the horse.

Big difference between the two.

Help uncle Jack off the horse
Help uncle Jack, off the the horse!
Help uncle, Jack, off the horse!
Help, uncle Jack, off the horse!
Help uncle, jack ofF the horse!
Help uncle jack off, the Horse!

[Page]

Help uncle jack off, the Horse!

This is my favorite version of this sentence.

[The Archregimancy]

I would like to dedicate this post to my parents, Max Barry and God.

[The Blaatschapen]

I would like to dedicate this post to my parents, Max Barry and God.

Awww, I didn't know that Max was gay.

Otherwise it would have been Goddess

[Sapporo Hyperspace Riftgate Laboratory]

I present to you: Ex-Presidents of Ukraine, my girlfriend and a creeper (aw man)

[The Free Joy State]

I would like to dedicate this post to my parents, Max Barry and God.

Awww, I didn't know that Max was gay.

Otherwise it would have been Goddess

Very phallocentric to assume God is male.

There are times when the Oxford comma may be needed to ensure clarity (and, if that is the case, I will use it), generally it's a stylistic choice and in most cases it's not absolutely needed.

With the sentence: "Bring me my notebook, a pen and my cat." no clarity is lost with or without an Oxford comma.

With Arch's sentence, a serial comma might avoid confusion.

But avoiding confusion is significantly less funny, so YMMV.

[The Blaatschapen]

Awww, I didn't know that Max was gay.

Otherwise it would have been Goddess

Very phallocentric to assume God is male.

There are times when the Oxford comma may be needed to ensure clarity (and, if that is the case, I will use it), generally it's a stylistic choice and in most cases it's not absolutely needed.

With the sentence: "Bring me my notebook, a pen and my cat." no clarity is lost with or without an Oxford comma.

With Arch's sentence, a serial comma might avoid confusion.

But avoiding confusion is significantly less funny, so YMMV.

God is male, because Goddess is female Why else have a feminine form precisely to point out a female God?