![]() ‘He ordered tea, bacon and eggs and toast’ may result in the diner receiving a plate of bacon and eggs, with the toast nicely presented in a toast rack. ![]() It would be quite possible to write this sentence without the final comma: it is just as easy to understand.īut what about the following example, alluded to in the lyrics of ‘Oxford Comma’: ‘I have 50 tonnes of iron, 50 pounds of steel and coal’? Does it mean that the steel and coal together should weigh 50 tonnes, or that the coal is an additional, unspecified quantity? Insert the Oxford comma after ‘steel’ and it all becomes clearer.įigure 1: How much steel and coal do I have?Īnother example of potential confusion arises when the conjunction ‘and’ appears more than once. So: ‘the bouquet contained roses, tulips, and carnations’. The Oxford comma is used before the final conjunction (‘and’ or ‘or/nor’) in a list of three or more items. What Difference Does the Oxford Comma Make? The Oxford comma can be used in exactly the same ways. Nowadays, the comma is generally regarded either as a stylistic device to mark a pause (a breath), or as an integral part of the underlying grammatical structure in order to convey a precise meaning. ![]() The squiggly little dot now known as the ‘comma’ was invented around AD 1500 by Aldo Manuzio, a Venetian printer, to separate items printed next to each other. Its secondary purpose is to help the writer to convey information more subtly, to add emphasis and to dictate the pace at which the text is read. The main purpose of punctuation is to aid the reader by eliminating confusion and clarifying meaning. So if the Oxford comma is not grammatically obligatory, why use it? To understand that, let’s consider the role of punctuation. Both Collins and Hart advocated the Oxford comma, not from adherence to any grammatical rule, but as an arbitrary decision based largely on the opinion of the Victorian scientist and philosopher Herbert Spencer. Collins, who in 1905 published his Authors’ and Printers’ Dictionary, and to Horace Hart, the Controller of the Press at OUP, who compiled his Rules for Compositors and Readers the same year (which is still in print as Hart’s Rules). The exact origins of the Oxford comma are unknown, but printed references can be traced back to indexer and writer F. Whatever it’s called, this pesky piece of punctuation has been the subject of passionate argument between its advocates and its detractors for decades. Sometimes it’s called a ‘serial comma’, and less frequently a ‘Harvard comma’ (from Harvard University Press). Its name comes from the Oxford University Press (OUP), where for over a century it has been standard in the Oxford Style Manual. The Oxford comma is the final comma that comes before the conjunction in a list of three or more items. If you’ve been lulled by the song into thinking that the Oxford comma doesn’t matter, you’d be mistaken. ![]() Is it an attack on pretentiousness? A plea to stop worrying about unimportant trivia? Or simply a tirade against all things grammatical? With more than 11 million plays and incredibly catchy lyrics, indie rock band Vampire Weekend’s song ‘Oxford Comma’ has generated heated online debate about its meaning. Why We Do Give a F*** About the Oxford Comma (and Why You Should Too)
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