Graphic by Nate Barton
“Let’s eat Grandpa,” or, “Let’s eat, Grandpa.” Proper punctuation can save lives. But there’s something you might’ve been doing wrong all along, and it may not be your fault. The Oxford comma is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as “an optional comma before the word ‘and’ at the end of a list.” That being said, the word “optional” can be taken under loose terms per instructors’ requests or popular opinion.
If you’ve been reading the Graphic or any other newspaper or publication for that matter, you may or may not have noticed there are no Oxford commas. You might even criticize these publications for not using it, automatically assuming there must have been an error in copy edit, perhaps.
But the AP Stylebook, the equivalent of the Bible for journalists that holds all journalism style requirements and necessities for publications around the world, tweeted on the subject May 29, 2013, “We generally don’t use the Oxford comma in a simple series,@johannaharvey: The U.S. flag is red, white and blue.#APStyleChat.”
In journalistic writing, articles are written in conversational style to make them easy to read, no matter how long the article is or how complex the topic being discussed may be.
In some cases, the oxford is necessary, arguably for a sentence such as, “My smoothies have combinations of bananas and strawberries, pineapples and mango, and raspberries and peaches.”
But in conversation, if you insert a comma, that’s a break in the sentence. It’s a small break, but it slows the conversation down. If someone is listing three consecutive objects such as chair, piano and elevator, the “and” in that sentence is already offering a long enough break, equating to the comma not said but heard previously.
The Oxford comma is excessive in its usage, allowing it to do more harm than good. Grammatically, it’s not incorrect to use, but using it introduces a redundant break to the reader.
__________
Follow Rachel Ettlinger on Twitter: @Hey_RaRaRachel
