The Oxford comma: punctuation’s bad boy

In the world of punctuation, nothing is more hotly debated than the serial comma — also called the Oxford comma. And, how cool is it that there is something that brings out intense debate in punctuation?

So, here’s the deal with this bad boy of punctuation. Most grammarians would say to use it when listing a series of three or more items, such as:

The boy, the girl, and the dog were playing in the yard.

The comma after girl is the comma we’re discussing.

There are some style guides (the most prominent is the AP Stylebook) that say you don’t need it unless it is needed to ensure clarity. And, that, my friends, is the most important piece. AP isn’t saying you never use it. Just make sure the sentence makes sense.

The boy, the girl and the dog were playing in the yard.

It’s pretty clear what they mean here, right? The sentence I often hear in defense of the serial comma is this one:

I would like to thank my parents, Ayn Rand and God.

The argument is that the parents are Ayn Rand and God. The editors at AP would probably say one of two things: First, anyone reading the sentence would know the author’s parents were not Rand and God. The other option, to avoid the ambiguity, is to use the comma.

Now, what do I think? I am a huge fan of the AP, but I also had the Oxford comma beat into me as an English major. This is what I would do: rewrite the sentence.

I would like to thank God, Ayn Rand and my parents.

It helps to eliminate the ambiguity, right?

Here’s the biggest piece of advice in regards to using the Oxford comma: be consistent. If you’re going to follow one style guide over another, stick to their rules. Don’t change it midway through a piece because you want to make sure a sentence isn’t ambiguous.

When you go from punctuating one way to another, it makes your writing sloppy. If that means you either stick with the Oxford or you rewrite sentences to get rid of ambiguity, do it.

Nothing looks less professional than sloppy writing.

And, for what it’s worth, I really don’t have strong feelings one way or another for the Oxford. I’ll just want to make the editor happy.