![]() But if I'm saying, "dogs, cats and humans", then it seems redundant. If I say, "I need a stick of dynamite, your lighter, and access to the front gate", that's a useful implementation of the Oxford Comma. Much depends on style and I think there is a generational thing going on with how we were taught (I'm pushing 40, so putting "and" after a comma was always taught as being redundant).įor me, it's all about context. What is the WF consensus, if there is one? Is it "red, white and blue" or "red, white, and blue"? Is the comma a superfluidity when there is an "and"? I've even seen a case made for "red white and blue", completely eschewing the commas altogether. But it's been several years since I've engaged in this topic. ![]() I tend to land in the punctuational territory of "if it is necessary, yes if not, no" camp. I've heard good (and very strident) arguments for both sides. I never cared about this until I read Lynn Truss' "Eats, Shoots & Leaves", which is one of the greatest (and funniest) books on punctuation ever written. What are people's thoughts on the Oxford Comma? Don't you think five million dollars is quite a loss, due the lack of a single, tiny comma? You can be sure an Oxford comma was added to the revised documents.Perhaps the riskiest of all topics, in my experience. ![]() By placing an Oxford comma before "or distribution," it would've been clear that "distribution" was its own separate act. Without a final comma in the series of tasks, "packing for shipment or distribution" could be read as "packing for shipment OR packing for distribution," where "packing for" is used for both "shipment" and "distribution." This is quite different from or, wherein the drivers are doing the latter task. ![]() The documents indicated that the "canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of" certain product are exempt from overtime payments. In legislative documents, certain tasks were singled out as exempt from overtime payments. When you're coming to the party can you bring Janet, a clown and an acrobat? (Is Janet a clown and an acrobat?)Īs you can see, leaving out the Oxford comma can sometimes make things confusing, hilarious, and possibly scandalous if you were to take the sentence the wrong way.Ī group of dairy delivery drivers in Maine received a $5 million settlement, due entirely to the lack of an Oxford comma.We were given this information by the Congressman, a liar and a cheat. ![]()
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