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November 16, 2011
Defending the Oxford Comma
Posted by gerardvanderleun at November 16, 2011 7:43 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
When I was in journalism school in the mid-80s, we were taught not to use the Oxford comma. I still don't, just out of that habit.
Posted by: Donald Sensing at November 16, 2011 9:23 AM
I was taught not to use the Oxford comma. When I see them in technical documents that I review, I mark them as errors, correct them and move on.
Posted by: physics geek at November 16, 2011 2:05 PM
I use the Oxford comma. When I see them omitted in technical documents, I insert them.
Posted by: BUTCH at November 16, 2011 4:11 PM
I, like, use, the Meghan McCain, comma.
Posted by: Jewel at November 16, 2011 5:14 PM
Miss Jewel,
And, sometimes there just seems too much, space without one.
And G, the 19th century novelists, and essayists, used commas as though punctuation were free, and a virtue. And yet, betimes, the fear seemed immanent, that somehow a pause might go unremarked.
Posted by: Rob De Witt at November 16, 2011 5:46 PM
Journalism classes teach students to skip that Oxford comma, because all those itty-bitty spaces add up and space equals money. English classes teach students to use the Oxford comma. Adjust and adapt accordingly.
Posted by: Deborah at November 16, 2011 6:30 PM
Reviewing current Ebonics twitter-prose, I'll take the O-comma anytime ... Yo?
Posted by: GaGator at November 17, 2011 7:44 AM
Reviewing current Ebonics twitter-prose, I'll take the O-comma anytime ... Yo?
Posted by GaGator at November 17, 2011 7:44 AM
You betcha, Buckwheat.
Posted by: Rob De Witt at November 17, 2011 4:00 PM
I've always used the Oxford comma, even though I never knew it was called that until now.
Does this qualify me for an honorary degree?
Posted by: rickl at November 17, 2011 5:01 PM
A written sentence should be able to be read aloud, in perfect cadence, by a literate person with reasonable annunciation, exactly as written.
If a sentence is written so that a normal person runs out of speaking breath while enunciating it, then it's a few commas short of a full expression.
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
Posted by: Jim at November 17, 2011 7:12 PM
You can have my Oxford comma when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.
Posted by: butch at November 17, 2011 7:23 PM