The Oxford Comma

Remember all the times in school when you were told that you shouldn’t put a comma before “and”?

That comma is called an Oxford comma, and, despite its name, is acceptable in American English.

While I’ve been trained not to use it, I find that it is useful in breaking up a written sentence to imitate how one would read it, and it has therefore crept into my writing – as you can see above.

The comma is especially useful when listing things, as illustrated in the first example below:

It should be pointed out, however, that the creator’s argument for the result of omitting the Oxford comma is incorrect, as the example sentence is grammatically wrong – as we all know, an “and” must come before the last item in the list.

Thus, for that example to be grammatically sound, it should read “I had eggs and toast and orange juice” – which in itself is confusing. Hence it would be better to say “I had eggs and toast with orange juice”.

Nonetheless, I am wholly of the opinion that Oxford commas are useful – just not weak/incorrect arguments for it. The Oxford comma reduces confusion when used in a complex sentence, and alerts the reader to when a pause in reading and in thought should be made.

I’m glad to have seen this though, as it got my brain working for a while :)