There are three types of people in the world: those who refuse to use the Oxford comma, those who use it but couldn’t care less about it, and those who use it, live it, and love it, to the point of writing entire articles about it.
People in general tend to be perfectly content with using the Oxford comma. Many of my friends, for example, have adopted it after my insistence, since, after all, it’s merely adding a comma to a list. Fortunately, it has become a habit for my friends, so even when the absence of the comma doesn’t obscure the meaning, they’ve learned to include it anyways.
Credit: Visual
And to be perfectly fair, the Oxford comma isn’t really a huge deal in certain circumstances. Like with grocery lists – “oranges, apples, grapes, strawberries and blueberries” mean the same thing as “oranges, apples, grapes, strawberries, and blueberries.” For the sake of consistency, I, of course, still use the Oxford comma.
Credit: PR Daily
The biggest problem I have with it is that its use is considered “stylistic,” meaning that different styles require it (or don’t).
Which is fine, on paper. There’s nothing wrong with the fact that while some styles require it, others don’t. They’re not forbidding it, right?
The AP style, used by reporters and journalists, doesn’t require the Oxford comma. The official Twitter account for the AP stylebook even cleared up some of the confusion here, posting the following:
“We don’t ban Oxford commas! We say: If omitting a comma could lead to confusion or misinterpretation, then use the comma. #APStyleChat”
They quickly added, though, that they don’t support its usage when the meaning is clear with or without the comma. The example they used had to do with the American flag: the comma isn’t necessary when writing “red, white and blue” because the meaning is clear.
Not only do I think that using the comma is just more aesthetically pleasing and, that in cases where meanings are clear even sans it, the comma gives you a better idea as to how to read aloud passages and text. Commas are, after all, also representative of pauses. It’s “red… white… and blue” not “red… white and blue.” While you can argue that people naturally know how to read the list and where the pauses are, it is, again, about consistency.
Not using the Oxford comma when it’s needed is chaotic, reckless, and an act of anarchy. Not using it all the time is a indictment of consistency, structure, and order.
Credit: Self Pub
While people are creatures of habit, habits can be formed in only 21 days. If you write in AP style, you obviously have certain restrictions. When I took journalism class in high school, my advisor sophomore year, a brilliant journalist, repeatedly made the same marks on my articles: “take out this comma.” Every time I had written a list, I would put a comma in front of the third (or last) item. Without fail. My teacher tried to condition me out of it, and eventually I gave in, begrudgingly.
Credit: RD
The year after, though, we had a new advisor, and I immediately went back to using the Oxford comma. Like me, she had very strong opinions about this comma – she not only let me use it, but she also added it in to other people’s articles. From then on, I could freely use my comma, even when I was writing grocery lists or listing the colors in the American flag.
And you really should too.
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