Via Gallycat, the Oxford people across the pond have dropped support for their comma in their official style guide. If you didn’t know — and I didn’t know it had an official name — the Oxford comma is that last comma in a list of things. Like this:
He’s allergic to bananas, kiwi, strawberries, and pears.
Without the comma, this sentence would read:
He’s allergic to bananas, kiwi, strawberries and pears.
The guide says that the comma can be used to avoid ambiguity, like if a common pair is listed at the end (“shave and haircut”) to in order to separate from the rest, but otherwise the comma should be avoided.
I’m not sure how this affects things really, especially stateside, if there is a difference. I don’t know the tendencies of editors and I haven’t really noticed what most writers do, although I think most omit it anyways. I was always for the comma, ever since middle school when I remember deciding to always use it, because it came off to me as intuitive and consistent.
No big deal. Business as usual.
2 Comments
I remember hearing the comma was unnecessary several years ago. However, I’ve never been able to stop using it. It bugs me not to see that comma there…
I’ve been doing it since middle school. If I stopped now I’d feel like I was betraying myself. What to do?
Also, loved the post you had today. I’ve been thinking about it all day, honestly!