I'm constantly trying to tell my students why proper grammar matters, and we spend extra time discussing one of those tiniest and, to my students, seemingly inconsequential marks in our language, the comma. An article in yesterday's New York Times reminds us why a comma could cost you millions.
In the field of English, we use the MLA style guide, which employs the Oxford comma (or the serial comma). This is the comma that connects with the conjunction that precedes the final item in a series. Some formats do not use this comma, such as the AP style that newspaper writers use. However, a recent court case has proven that this puny punctuation can be a very big deal. One company will be paying its employees millions of dollars more than they had planned because of a missing comma in its contracts.
Commas help provide clarity, and I believe the MLA style is correct. Here's why:
In the field of English, we use the MLA style guide, which employs the Oxford comma (or the serial comma). This is the comma that connects with the conjunction that precedes the final item in a series. Some formats do not use this comma, such as the AP style that newspaper writers use. However, a recent court case has proven that this puny punctuation can be a very big deal. One company will be paying its employees millions of dollars more than they had planned because of a missing comma in its contracts.
Commas help provide clarity, and I believe the MLA style is correct. Here's why:
When making a list, you need to clearly distinguish the elements in that series. When listing your heroes and referring to them individually, the Oxford comma becomes especially useful. The above image, which omits the Oxford, seems to sound as if Superman and Wonder Woman are the names of your parents, rather than just names of people you find heroic. Very confusing. When you are writing papers, you should follow the rules of your teachers. But if any of them tell you that you shouldn't use the Oxford comma, remind them of this cartoon, and share with them the article link from the Times. That comma is valuable in more ways than one.