The Oxford Comma

[Forsher]

But avoiding confusion is significantly less funny, so YMMV.

Exactly!

[Australian rePublic]

My favourite colour combinations are red and yellow, dark blue and light blue, and fluorescent pink and fluorescent green. This is why I love the Oxford comma.

[The Archregimancy]

Highlights of Peter Ustinov's global tour included encounters with Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector.


Amongst those interviewed were Merle Haggard’s two ex-wives, Kris Kristofferson and Robert Duvall.

[The Archregimancy]

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?

So long as we're being pedantic over grammar (and I've spent much of today editing museum texts about Egyptian gods, with Oxford commas coming up for discussion a fair amount), this is actually false.

'God' was capitalised in my sentence, therefore implying the Abrahamic god. There is no feminine equivalent term in English. 'Goddess' is never capitalised (unless at the start of a sentence), and is cognate to 'god' rather than to 'God'.

[Asle Leopolka]

My fiance works for the state and they get into literal yelling matches over the Oxford comma. Strange times we live in.

Also count me as a member of "Team Oxford."

[Satuga]

In the words of Al Yankovic

If you really wanna, leave out that oxford comma!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc Listen to this song it's funny.

[Greed and Death]

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

It is less of an issue now but like with news papers foregoing the oxford comma saved space. If you are writing a 100 page business report this likely nets you a page, which if you are circulating that report to thousands of people would produce noticeable savings.

In general legal writing uses the oxford comma (I would say at this juncture it is malpractice not to in drafting of contracts) however in briefs in support of a motion I have seen attorney's remove their oxfords to get a few more lines to argue their case.

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

I always use it. I don't think the only use it when needed approach works - unless I am really familiar with your writing style I am not going to know whether you use it routinely or not, so I am not going to know whether there is ambiguity or not.

[US-SSR]

Somewhat off-topic, but still: RIP the Apostrophe Protection Society. Epitaph: "Ignorance and Laziness Has Won."

[The Two Jerseys]

Somewhat off-topic, but still: RIP the Apostrophe Protection Society. Epitaph: "Ignorance and Laziness Has Won."

Best apostrophe misuse I've seen: a sign on the University of Kansas campus.

[Ethel mermania]

Highlights of a Peter Ustinov's global tour included encounters with Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector.


Amongst those interviewed were Merle Haggard’s two ex-wives, Kris Kristofferson and Robert Duvall.

Merle understood hard living.

[The Two Jerseys]

Highlights of a Peter Ustinov's global tour included encounters with Nelson Mandela, an 800-year-old demigod and a dildo collector.


Amongst those interviewed were Merle Haggard’s two ex-wives, Kris Kristofferson and Robert Duvall.

Merle understood hard living.

Prison will do that.

[Ethel mermania]

Merle understood hard living.

Prison will do that.

Gotta be a tough guy to be with kris and rob.

[Sapporo Hyperspace Riftgate Laboratory]

Oxford gang

[Kowani]

Somewhat off-topic, but still: RIP the Apostrophe Protection Society. Epitaph: "Ignorance and Laziness Has Won."

Linguistic evolution is a thing, people. Get over it.

[Sensorland]

It just doesn't feel right not to use the Oxford comma.

[The Free Joy State]

Somewhat off-topic, but still: RIP the Apostrophe Protection Society. Epitaph: "Ignorance and Laziness Has Won."

Linguistic evolution is a thing, people. Get over it.

Apostrophes are still needed.

Writing "We had no food, so we ate the dogs'." will earn you sympathy.

Writing "We had no food, so we ate the dogs." will earn you a visit from the RSPCA.

[USS Monitor]

Oxford comma is your friend.

[Kowani]

Linguistic evolution is a thing, people. Get over it.

Apostrophes are still needed.

Writing "We had no food, so we ate the dogs'." will earn you sympathy.

Writing "We had no food, so we ate the dogs." will earn you a visit from the RSPCA.

Not the point. Rather, that we will adapt, and get along just fine. It’s an inherent quality of language.

[The Free Joy State]

Apostrophes are still needed.

Writing "We had no food, so we ate the dogs'." will earn you sympathy.

Writing "We had no food, so we ate the dogs." will earn you a visit from the RSPCA.

Not the point. Rather, that we will adapt, and get along just fine. It’s an inherent quality of language.

Well, it is the point. Sometimes, punctuation can change the meaning of a sentence entirely.

A lot of communication these days is done in a text format, where confusion happens anyway.

Take away proper punctuation, and we'll get more confusion:

"So what do you like?"
"I love baking my family and friends."
"..."

"I have to say something."
"What?"
"I'm sorry I love you."
"..."

Language changes, but it shouldn't change to the cost of becoming incomprehensible.

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

I do wonder what is going to happen to written language once voice control becomes ubiquitous in technology. Since I stopped working I barely write anymore, except to post here. If I did that by dictating I think it would be rather different to actually typing/writing something, particularly when it comes to punctuation. Will children who grow up rarely needing to write have the physical skills for hand writing?

[Kowani]

Not the point. Rather, that we will adapt, and get along just fine. It’s an inherent quality of language.

Well, it is the point. Sometimes, punctuation can change the meaning of a sentence entirely.

A lot of communication these days is done in a text format, where confusion happens anyway.

Take away proper punctuation, and we'll get more confusion:

"So what do you like?"
"I love baking my family and friends."
"..."

"I have to say something."
"What?"
"I'm sorry I love you."
"..."

Language changes, but it shouldn't change to the cost of becoming incomprehensible.

And I’m sure when we made the Great Vowel Shift, they thought the exact same thing.
Ah, that’s right. Trying to analyze a hypothetical language through the vision of the current one inherently biases the analysis in favor of the current one, because it’s only incomprehensible to us because of the way we analyze it.

Language has already changed to the point where it’d be incomprehensible to certain people in the past. Like, Spanish predating the 17th century, I can’t understand (and almost certainly vice versa).

[The Blaatschapen]

Proper spelling matters too.

Man's laughter is entirely different from manslaughter.

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

I've lived through the rise of the high rising terminal in the UK. It still leaves me trying to work out what the question is, when there isn't one.

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

Proper spelling matters too.

Man's laughter is entirely different from manslaughter.

There used to be a pawn shop near me called Ray's Exchange.