The Oxford Comma: To Use or Not to Use?

The Oxford, or serial, comma has been the subject of fierce debate among writers and grammar aficionados for years. This seemingly innocuous punctuation mark stirs up surprisingly strong opinions both for and against its usage. Should you use the Oxford comma, which places a comma before the conjunction in a list of three or more items? Or does the extra comma clutter up sentences unnecessarily?

On the pro-Oxford comma side, advocates argue it clarifies the relationships between things in a list and prevents ambiguity. When you write, “She admired her parents, Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama,” it’s unclear whether the speaker’s parents are Oprah and Obama or if those two are separate items in the list. Inserting the Oxford comma eliminates confusion: “She admired her parents, Oprah Winfrey, and Barack Obama.”

Proponents also suggest the final serial comma promotes parallelism by treating each list item equally. It emphasizes the discreteness of the objects in a series and makes the sentence flow smoothly. Additionally, they argue omitting the Oxford comma can sometimes hinder understanding, while including it never hurts. The extra punctuation causes no harm, so why not use it for clarity?

However, adversaries point out that the Oxford comma is one more extraneous mark cluttering up sentences. They argue you can accomplish the same clarifying effect through careful phrasing and restructuring. For example, simply rewording the earlier sentence to “She admired Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama, as well as her parents,” eliminates ambiguity without requiring an Oxford comma.

Opponents say the extra comma feels stilted and pedantic in many sentences. And they argue that omitting it often causes no confusion anyway. If you wrote, “Bob admires his parents, the Dalai Lama and the Pope,” most readers intuitively understand Bob’s parents are not the Dalai Lama and the Pope.

The Oxford comma debate extends beyond grammar geeks to the hallowed halls of academia and jurisprudence. The University of Oxford Styleguide still mandates using the Oxford comma. Yet the Associated Press Stylebook omits it, along with institutions like The New York Times, The Washington Post and others.

The comma has even been at the center of legal disputes over contracts. In 2018, Maine truck drivers successfully sued their employer for overtime pay they argued they were owed under a state law that included the Oxford comma. The drivers said the lack of a comma created ambiguity, while their employer claimed its absence intended to limit overtime eligibility. After much scrutiny, the court eventually sided with the drivers.

So should you use the serial comma or not? Unlike many grammar quandaries, there is no consensus on this issue even among experts. Here are some guidelines for deciding when to embrace the Oxford comma:

• Use it in complex lists where clarity is required and omitting it could cause confusion. The Oxford comma shines when it comes to eliminating ambiguity.
• Consider your audience’s expectations. Use the serial comma if your readers expect it, like in scholarly or technical documents, and leave it out for publication styles like journalism where it is normally omitted.
• Choose a style guide or institution you want to follow and remain internally consistent. The University of Oxford uses it; The Chicago Manual of Style and the American Psychological Association embrace it; The Associated Press Stylebook omits it.
• Go with your natural inclination. If you find the Oxford comma cluttered and superfluous, omit it. If you think it clarifies lists and improves flow, include it. Just be consistent within documents.

The verdict? The Oxford comma is neither universally correct nor incorrect. But used strategically, it can provide clarity and prevent peculiar misinterpretations. Though often maligned, this little mark still has an important role to play in polished writing.