![]() As with all punctuation, if it makes your text clearer or easier to read, use a comma. The real rules of Oxford CommasĬlarity is King! Commas of any kind are there to aid understanding. Sorry, Markus! Sometimes we don’t either. Markus, my German teacher: “Germans don’t put a comma before the ‘und’ unlike you English.” The Guardian Style Guide: “Straightforward (he ate ham, eggs and chips) do not need, but sometimes it can help the reader (he ate cereal, kippers, bacon, eggs, toast and marmalade, and tea).” But he ordered scrambled eggs, whisky and soda, and a selection from the trolley.’” Thus ‘The doctor suggested an aspirin, half a grapefruit and a cup of broth. The Economist Style Guide: “Do not put a comma before and at the end of a sequence of items unless one of the items includes another and. ![]() The Times style manual: “Avoid the so-called Oxford comma.” Include a final comma in a simple series if omitting it could make the meaning unclear.” The AP Styleguide: “Use commas to separate elements in a series, but do not put a comma before the conjunction in most simple series. The Chicago Manual of Style: “Chicago strongly recommends this widely practiced usage, blessed by Fowler and other authorities, since it prevents ambiguity.” New Hart’s Rules, 2005: “The general rule is that one style or the other should be used consistently.” ![]() Check out this small sample of various authorities’ thoughts on the serial comma:įowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage: “The so-called 'Oxford comma' is an optional comma … it is sometimes helpful to the reader to use an isolated serial comma for clarification, even when the convention has not been adopted in the rest of the text.” I’m not trying to be difficult or facetious, but there is no hard and fast rule. The use of the Oxford comma is a source of, shall we say, some disagreement among writers, editors, pub bores, grammar nerds, academics, journalists and – as it transpires – government ministers. Oh sweet innocent child! if only it were that simple. (It’s sometimes known as a Harvard comma, presumably for the same reasons.) The use of a serial comma has been part of the OUP’s house style for more than 100 years, and so the name sort of stuck. ![]() For example:īlame the Oxford University Press for this one. Oh helpful, thanks! What’s a serial comma?Ī comma used before a conjunction (basically and or or) in a list of three or more items. It’s just another name for a serial comma So here is the definitive guide to the Oxford comma – and why politicians should just leave well alone. Personally I’d prefer the health minister to be focusing on, you know, public health, reducing A&E and ambulance waiting times, and doing something so my aging parents don’t need to wait three weeks for a GP appointment (hi mum, hi dad!).īut we don’t always get what we want. Therese Coffey, newly in charge of the health service, has issued directives about the use, or non-use, of the Oxford comma by her civil servants, and for a brief while we were plunged right back into the Great Grammar Wars before genuinely important things – like a possible run on sterling – took over. What with all the trauma and turmoil, you’d think that government ministers had better things to do than worry about their civil servants’ grammar. ![]()
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