The Oxford Comma -- Do You Use It?

[Terminus]

Serial comma - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Do you use this? Have your english teachers encouraged you to use this or turned you rabidly against it?

 

[Ventus]

When listing things such as names, places, or dates...it's pretty important for the literary-astute to have the oxford comma present, depending on what ideas one may want to convey. After all, the very soul of the sentence can be altered severely with or without it.

Take this sentence (and its variation) for example:

To my parents, Ayn Rand and God.
To my parents, Ayn Rand, and God.

There are many ways to interpret the first sentence. It's ambiguous whether "God" and "Ayn Rand" are your parents in the first. In the second, all ambiguity is erased - it's clear that your parents are two totally separate people from "Ayn Rand" and "God". )

 

[Mandi the Beast]

I believe the Oxford comma to the correct method of writing a list.

 

[Jimmu]

Before just now I didn't know it was a thing. It was never mentioned at school so they mustn't see at as important here, "and" separates the last two items in a list fine on its own anyway.

 

[Clank]

Yes I try to always use it...

 

[Keeseman]

As a child in Canada, I used it initially. Then around Grade 4 or 5 in Beijing (at an American school...) they told me not to use it. After moving to my current (British) school, I was taught to use it again (my English teachers for the past 4 years have been either British or from Commonwealth countries). So now I use proper punctuation again. Thanks, Great Britain!

 

[The Marshal]

If I understood that article correctly, then yes.

EDIT: When reading the topic and the article again, I think I messed up. So just disregard this post. I'm not sure. lol

 

[Wolf Sage]

Funny that you mention this, seeing as Locke, Mandy, and I had a lengthy discussion about grammar (starting with Oxford commas) a few weeks ago in the chat box.

At any rate, I can't help but use them, or else I get annoyed, perplexed, and distraught...

 

[DekuPrincess]

Absolutely, it drives me crazy when people don't for the same reason Ventus pointed out:

Take this sentence (and its variation) for example:

To my parents, Ayn Rand and God.
To my parents, Ayn Rand, and God.

I find it sloppy when people don't use the serial comma and the lack of clarity is frustrating.

 

[Locke]

My teachers, Strunk and White tell me to use it.

 

[Mudora]

I find this interesting as in my English class last semester I noticed that some students were previously taught to not use the Oxford comma, while others (myself included) were. I use the Oxford comma as I think it is the proper way to list things. It also lessens possible confusion within a sentence as Ventus showed through those examples.

 

[NewJourneysFire]

Another example of how the sentence can dramatically change:

- Toast, juice, macaroni and cheese.
- Toast, juice, macaroni, and cheese.

Clearly the serial comma would not work here. But I wonder, in a society that does not use serial commas, and thus write all their sentences without them, Mac and cheese would appear without the comma, no different than trucks and pudding. So how (lets assume that people didn't know Mac and cheese go together) would people know a person is saying Mac and cheese as a single entity?

 

[Kirino]

Yes. I've always been taught to use it.

 

[CynicalSquid]

I have always been taught to use it. Except these last two years my teacher said it didn't matter if you used it or not. I still use it though because it makes more sense to me.

 

[Lamphobic]

Yes because not using it is wrong no matter how much an english teacher may say it doesn't matter.