Brief Overview about Oxford Comma

Author: Kristen Stewart

There is an ongoing debate about the use of The Oxford and for the purposes of this article; we will sit on the fence about the use of the Oxford comma.

It is a comma used directly before a coordinating conjunction, and is used when three or more items in a list have been introduced: I ate pizza, chips, and garlic bread.

The debate is wide-spread and fierce, with many people calling the Oxford comma redundant and pretentious, yet it does to an awfully good job of clarifying what you mean in the context of a sentence. Due to this debate The Oxford Dictionary itself has defined their comma as ‘optional’.

Arguments for the use of the Oxford comma will insist that it does a terrific job at providing clarity in a sentence and its use is consistent.

Let’s have a look at an example:

I went to the park, played on the slides, ate ice cream and went to the toilet.

This sentence has told the reader that I went to the toilet while eating ice-cream, as there is no break, or pause. However by using the Oxford comma, I went to the park, played on the slides, ate ice cream, and went to the toilet.

My reader will know that I performed all of these different things separately. The Oatmal.com has produced a series of satirical comic strips that emphasize why the Oxford comma is important. They write: ‘We invited the strippers, JFK, and Stalin.’ Each comma signifies a separate person, because if that comma was not there ‘we invited the strippers, JFK and Stalin’ means that the strippers are JFK and Stalin. Humor can be very beneficial to an understanding of grammar, but our proofreading services are just as important.

Arguments against the Oxford comma believe that it introduces ambiguity, it is inconsistent with convention – basically it’s precisely the opposite of what the arguments for the Oxford comma state.

An example of when a serial comma can create ambiguity is:

I would like to thank my sister, Barbara Johnson, and God.

The ambiguity is effective here. Is Barbara Johnson the sister? The punctuation is identical to that of an appositive phase, leaving it unclear as to how many people are being addressed. Yet if the serial comma is removed:

I would like to thank my sister, Barbara Johnson and God

It becomes less ambiguous unless the reader confuses the sentence to the extent that Barbara Johnson is also God.

The way to get around this is to rewrite the sentence: To Barbara Johnson, and God.

The way that you approach the use of the Oxford comma must depend on the institution that you are writing for. As a rule, most academic institutions will not mind either way, as long as you are consistent, however, it is good to know that some do not like it. Proofreading services will assist you with this.