Writing 1.01 Wednesdays

Every literary snob who ever lived extolls the virtue of the Oxford comma (also known as the serial comma.) If you’re not familiar, this is the comma you would use in a list or before an “and” or “but.”

People who have strong feelings about serial commas will often cite the sentence, “Eats shoots and leaves,” which means a very different thing than “eats, shoots, and leaves." One is eating bamboo for some reason, and the other is shooting up pubs and running away. The Oxford comma alters the meaning of the sentence. Some people think that makes it the best, most excellent, most esteemed comma that ever was. Smarter people think that makes it the most optional comma that ever was.

Oxford University Press still recommends serial commas, but if you’re writing for Associated Press, you are not supposed to use it. The punctuation guru at The New Yorker believes that we should only use the serial comma if it helps clarity. In other words, if we’re writing, “I like green eggs, ham and cheese” no serial comma is necessary, but if we’re writing, “eats, shoots, and leaves,” we might need the comma.

It's complicated, but media houses need rules because they need all their writers to use an identical style. The New Yorker ultimately decided that they could not trust their writers to use the serial comma only when necessary. To overcome the problem, they decided to use the Oxford comma at all times, even when unnecessary.

This kind of pull and push happens around a lot of punctuation. We like to fight about what’s correct, but the best writers can justify every single piece of punctuation they include. They only use what’s necessary. They cast the rest aside.

This is how you should be approaching your punctuation (unless you’re writing for a media house like AP, in which case you have to do what you’re told.) Your highest punctuation goal is to gain such a depth of understanding that you can occasionally break the rules. Reaching that point takes years, but why not start now?