Using the Oxford Comma (Or Serial Comma)

Using the Oxford Comma (Or Serial Comma) Using the Serial (or Oxford) Comma The band Vampire Weekend once memorably sang words to the effect of who gives a monkey’s about an Oxford comma? Well, we do, and the person reading and grading your paper will too! What Is the Oxford (or Serial) Comma? Overlooked by many, the Oxford (or serial) comma is a useful tool in writing. It is so-called because it is recommended by the Oxford University Press style guide. We use the Oxford comma primarily to avoid ambiguity in lists. To be specific, an Oxford comma is a comma used before the final and or or in a list of three or more items. We would thus use it like this: The American flag is red, white, and blue. Although a final comma is not strictly necessary here, you should still add it if your colleges style guide specifies using Oxford/serial commas. Why Use the Oxford Comma? To see why the Oxford comma is sometimes necessary for clarity, we can take a look at a list where the final item is potentially ambiguous: The most important things in my life are my friends, God and Michael Jordon. Here, for example, it is unclear whether the speaker is referring to three distinct things or simply identifying God and Michael Jordan as her friends. Adding the serial comma removes this ambiguity by showing that each one is a separate item in the list: The most important things in my life are my friends, God, and Michael Jordon. The Oxford comma is also useful when one item in a list includes and or or already, as it can clarify the divisions. For instance, take the sentence: My favorite activities are basketball, singing and dancing and acrobatics. We know from the repeated and here that either singing and dancing or dancing and acrobatics are meant to be taken together. But the list doesnt make clear which. Adding the Oxford comma solves this: My favorite activities are basketball, singing and dancing, and acrobatics. Be sure to check your style guide, too, as some institutions have specific rules regarding use of the Oxford comma. And if you would like more grammar advice, or someone to look over your writing, get in touch with the professionals at Proofed today!

10 Websites and Blogs of Punctuation Protectors

10 Websites and Blogs of Punctuation Protectors 10 Websites and Blogs of Punctuation Protectors 10 Websites and Blogs of Punctuation Protectors By Mark Nichol In honor of National Punctuation Day, commemorated on September 24 (you didn’t forget, did you?), here’s a directory of Web sites documenting, usually with photographs, egregious punctuation errors. First, by the way, note that the founder of National Punctuation Day, a freelance business-newsletter writer named Jeff Rubin, sponsors a Punctuation Paragraph Contest. The only rule is that you must write one paragraph, maximum of three sentences, using these punctuation marks: apostrophe, brackets, colon, comma, dash, ellipsis, exclamation point, hyphen, parentheses, period, question mark, quotation mark, and semicolon. (You may use a punctuation mark more than once.) Send your entry to the email address at Rubin’s Web site by September 30, 2011. 1. Apostrophe Abuse Tagline: Links and visuals illustrating an orthographic pet peeve. 2. Apostrophe Catastrophes Tagline: The Worlds’ Worst. Punctuation; 3. The Apostrophe Protection Society Tagline: Examples of misuse of the apostrophe as seen by you! 4. The â€Å"Blog† of â€Å"Unnecessary† Quotation Marks Tagline: none 5. English Fail Blog Tagline: Public Butcherings of the English Language 6. The Gallery Of â€Å"Misused† Quotation Marks Tagline: none 7.GrammarBlog Tagline: Mocking poor grammar since 2007 8. The Grammar Vandal Tagline: Taking it to the streets and correcting America, one comma at a time. 9. The Great Typo Hunt Tagline: none 10. Wordsplosion Tagline: Showcasing the best of the worst of the wide world of words Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Punctuation category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:12 Signs and Symbols You Should Know"Owing to" vs "Due to"Ebook, eBook, ebook or e-book?