“A, B and C” OR “A, B, and C”? The Oxford comma debate
Be honest: Did you spot the difference between the two titles without the clue offered by the subtitle? A thumbs-up if you did, but don’t worry if you did not, because this article will make sure that you do the next time around. The difference between the two alternatives lies in the comma that separates the last item in the list from the last-but-one item, as in “Red, green and blue” versus “Red, green, and blue”—enter the Oxford comma.
What is the Oxford comma?
The Oxford comma, as shown above, is the final comma in a series comprising three or more items separated by commas. Incidentally, the mark is also known as the series comma (a term more common in US English), the serial comma, the Oxford comma, or the Harvard comma: the last two names are used probably because its use is recommended by the Oxford University Press and the Harvard University Press, respectively.
Does it matter?
To me and, I am sure, to all those who read and copy-edit academic text, the Oxford comma does matter, and we usually insert it if the author has not used it. But many of my fellow copy editors in newspaper and magazine publishing, and journalists, no doubt look upon it with disdain. Well, perhaps they will change their mind if they know that the Oxford comma—or, rather, the lack of it—cost a dairy company, Oakhurst Dairy, in Maine, USA, five million dollars, and made some of its drivers the richer by $50,000 each for that comma1. Let me explain how.
At the root of the dispute was a sentence from the law of the state of Maine about who is not entitled for overtime pay. The text, reproduced below, does not contain the Oxford comma:
“The canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of:
Agricultural produce;
Meat and fish product; and
Perishable foods”
It is clear that workers engaged in canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, and packing are ineligible for overtime. But what about drivers, who are obviously engaged in the distribution of foods? If “packing for shipment” and “distribution” are considered distinct activities, the drivers too are ineligible. The Oxford comma, inserted after “shipment” and before “or,” would have strengthened the interpretation that the two activities were in fact distinct—and the drivers would have gained nothing. However, the comma was missing, and the court therefore reasoned that the punctuation does not make it clear that the two are distinct activities and ruled in favour of the drivers. Another blog post2, titled “The commas that cost companies millions,” summarizes this and a few more court cases.
Such is the fascination of some writers with the Oxford comma that the title of a book3 on punctuation was crafted to show how its absence changes the meaning. It reads “Eats, Shoots & Leaves,” and leaves (pun not intended) readers wondering whether the title should be interpreted as having a verb and two nouns (describing a diet) or verbs alone (describing actions).
The Oxford comma continues to interest many, if Google is anything to go by. There were 603,000 hits for the phrase “serial comma” (within double quotes) at the time of writing this, and 4,390 hits even when I limited the search to the past year, with the Microsoft Style Guide at the top: the very first entry under the section on commas4 goes thus:
Before the conjunction in a list of three or more items. (The comma that comes before the conjunction is known as the Oxford or serial comma.)
Examples
Outlook includes Mail, Calendar, People, and Tasks.
Save your file to a hard drive, an external drive, or OneDrive.
Stephen Spector mentions in his book The Quotable Guide to Punctuation5 that on learning that he was writing a book on punctuation, several immediately asked him “one burning question: Where do I stand on the Oxford comma?”
Who all insist on the Oxford comma, are flexible, or forbid it?
Those who insist on or recommend the Oxford comma
As mentioned earlier, most academic publishers, especially from the United States, use the Oxford comma. Its use is recommended by authorities like The Chicago Manual of Style6 (“Chicago strongly recommends this widely practiced usage”), Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association7, the AMA Manual of Style8, and Scientific Style and Format9. In the United Kingdom, as mentioned earlier, Oxford University Press favours it10:
For a century it has been part of Oxford University Press style to retain or impose this last comma consistently, to the extent that the convention has also come to be called the Oxford comma.
A few other sources, also less authoritative, also recommend the use of this comma. Selwood, in Punctuation Without Tears11, says, “Thousands of writers and publishers use it all the time. I’ve used it throughout this book.” Arlene Miller, in To Comma or Not to Comma12, also recommends its use but adds that it is optional. As she puts it,
I have only two pieces of advice: (1) I use it and recommend that you do (unless you are following a certain style guide that says don’t use it) because it often clears up the meaning of a sentence. (2) Using the Oxford, or series, comma is optional, but you should definitely be consistent in your use of it within a piece of writing.
Those who are flexible about the Oxford comma
Cambridge University Press13, for example, chooses to sit on the fence by saying that “A comma should be consistently omitted or included before the final ‘and’ or ‘or’ in lists of three or more items.” Similarly, G V Carey, in Mind the Stop14, writes, “you can belong to the ‘final comma school’ or to the ‘no final comma school’, but, having made your choice, you should aim at consistency.” Trask, in The Penguin Guide to Punctuation15, recommends the comma “only if this is necessary to make your meaning clear.”
Those who forbid the use of the Oxford comma
Among the heavyweights in those against the use of the serial comma is Nature, one of the top scientific journals and published from the UK. One of its editors admitted to me as much (Flora Graham, pers. comm., email to the author dated 11 Sept. 2020) in response to my enquiry when I wrote:
“Today we meet the winners of this year’s Breakthrough Prizes, discover the underdog coronavirus vaccines that the world will need if front runners stumble and enjoy the Voyagers’ view from outside the heliosphere” makes a good case for using the serial comma, because for half a second I wondered why the front runners would stumble but also enjoy!
The Times, London, in its style guide16, simply says, “Avoid the so-called Oxford comma”; The Economist Style Guide17 offers the same advice: “Lists: do not put a comma before and or or at the end of a sequence of items”.
Should you use the Oxford comma in your writing?
The short and simple answer to the question is “Yes, you should.” Why? Here are my reasons:
• Most academic publishers recommend it, and even those who do not are unlikely to mind it if you do use the Oxford comma.
• It is more likely to remove ambiguity than to create one. In support, let me reproduce here the—probably made-up—example of a dedication that shows the ambiguity: “To my parents, Ayn Rand and God.”
• It can be removed easily enough, if necessary, during copy editing by the publisher—or by you if a given journal’s instructions to authors forbid its use. All you need to do is to use the “Find and Replace” feature of Microsoft Word (or the equivalent in any other software package) or, in running a grammar and spelling check in Microsoft Word18, use File > Options > Proofing > When correcting spelling and grammar in Word > Writing Style (grammar & refinements) > Setting > Punctuation Conventions > Oxford Comma and see that the box is checked or selected. Note that the exact route may differ depending on which version of Microsoft Office you have.
References
1 Rosenblatt K and the Associated Press. 2018. Think commas don’t matter? Omitting one cost a Maine dairy company $5 million. NBC News 13 Feb.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/think-commas-don-t-matter-omitting-one-cost-maine-dairy-n847151
2 BBC Worklife. 2018. The commas that cost companies millions.
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20180723-the-commas-that-cost-companies-millions
3 Truss L. 2003. Eats, Shoots & Leaves: the zero tolerance approach to punctuation. London: Profile Books. 210 pp.
4 Microsoft Writing Style Guide. 2022. Commas.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/style-guide/punctuation/commas
5 Spector S. 2017. The Quotable Guide to Punctuation, p. 101. New York: Oxford University Press. 322 pp.
6 The University of Chicago Press. 2017. The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edn, p. 371. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1144 pp.
7 American Psychological Association. 2020. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edn, p. 155. Washington, DC: APA. 428 pp.
8 JAMA Network editors. 2020. AMA Manual of Style, 11th edn, pp. 337–338. New York: Oxford University Press. 1228 pp.
9 Council of Science Editors. 2014. Scientific Style and Format, 7th edn, p. 66. Wheat Ridge, Colorado, USA: CSE. 722 pp.
10 Waddingham A. 2014. New Hart’s Rules: the Oxford style guide, p. 77. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 464 pp.
11 Selwood D. 2018. Punctuation without Tears, p. 38. London: Corax. 126 pp.
12 Miller A. 2018. To Comma Or Not To Comma, p. 71. Petaluma, California: bigwords101. 134 pp.
13 Butcher J, Drake C, and Leach M. 2006. Butcher’s Copy-editing: the Cambridge handbook for editors, copy-editors and proofreaders, 4th edn, p. 156. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 544 pp.
14 Carey G V. 1958. Mind the Stop: a brief guide to punctuation, p. 65. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books. 126 pp. London: Penguin Books.
15 Trask R L. 1997. The Penguin Guide to Punctuation, p. 17. London: Penguin Books. 162 pp.
16 Brunskill I (ed.). 2017. The Times Style Guide, 2nd edn, p. 57. London: Times Books (HarperCollins). 284 pp.
17 Wroe A (ed.). 2018. The Economist Style Guide, 12th edn, p. 121. London: Profile Books. 278 pp.
18 PerfectIt. Tutorials: How do I turn on Microsoft’s Oxford (serial) comma checker?
https://intelligentediting.com/support/faqs/how-do-i-turn-on-microsofts-oxford-serial-comma-checker/
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