A serious look at the serial comma

You might have heard it referred to as the Oxford comma. You also might have heard frequent debate about it in the annals of style guides everywhere, from Chicago to Oxford University. What is it, and why has it inspired so much debate?

Simply put, the serial comma is the one that’s right before the last item in a list, and before the conjunction that links them. The following list “Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic” has a serial comma, while “Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic” does not.

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Serial commas can eliminate confusion

And yet, it is exactly this simplicity that can lead to misleading meanings, especially when pertaining to people and proper nouns. If you are writing a dedication, you might say:

To my friends, Bruce Lee and the Lord.

Upon initial reading, it might seem like the writer is friends with both Bruce Lee as well as the Lord, which would be a fun group. But unless that’s the exact sentiment the writer wishes to convey, it’s likely not accurate. With just one punctuation mark, a serial comma would clear up that ambiguity in an instant:

To my friends, Bruce Lee, and the Lord.

Other examples of this confusion can be applied to titles and roles:

I went to town with my mother, a lawyer and a stenographer.

Is the mother both a lawyer and a stenographer, i.e., are those her two roles that the writer is describing? Or did the writer go with multiple people? The absence of a serial comma introduces this doubt to the reader.

Ambiguity tends to happen more often in a list that is comprised of roles instead of names. In this case, there are ways to eliminate this ambiguity—the writer can mention how many people were present:

I went to town with three people: my mother, a lawyer, and a stenographer.

The above case lists three people specifically, and also adds a serial comma to reinforce the distinctions between the three people in the list.

“There are people who embrace the Oxford comma and people who don’t, and I’ll just say this: never get between these people when drink has been taken.”

When you should, or shouldn’t, use the serial comma

The above cases indicate areas where a serial comma is helpful. But there are times when adding a serial comma can make things even more confusing.

This is where the debate comes into play: “There are people who embrace the Oxford comma, and people who don’t, and I’ll just say this: never get between these people when drink has been taken,” writes Lynne Truss in her influential grammar book Eats, Shoots, and Leaves.

Introducing an extra comma when it isn’t necessary can disrupt the flow of text. Since we treat commas like pauses, seeing an extra comma when we know what’s going to follow would be like taking an extra breath right at the moment of anticipation. And depending on the peculiarities of a region, the acceptance of the serial comma varies.

This is why English-language style guides on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean have drawn up sides in the argument.

Americans love the serial comma, but the British do not

The style guide is, at its essence, a list of rules: entries within a style guide might be comprised of usage cases, and different scenarios to consider in your written text, but it is to be adhered to in a professional sense. This where the debate for a serial comma becomes heated.

Many of the major American style guides recommend use of the serial comma, including the Chicago Manual of Style, the MLA Style Manual, the American Medical Association, and Strunk and White’s famous The Elements of Style (which has recommended it since 1918!).

Conversely, in Great Britain, Oxford University is the main proponent of the serial comma—hence its alternative name, the Oxford comma. Major British newspapers that oppose the comma include The Times and The Economist, while The Guardian is ambivalent about its use. To mirror this sentiment in America, The New York Times Stylebook and the AP Stylebook are two major resources that also oppose the serial comma. Hence, the lively debate!

In short, there is no hard and fast rule to always or to never use a serial comma. But then again, in grammar, there is a challenge in learning the rules, and even more challenging ways to effectively break them. To improve your own skills, you can follow these essentials, learn about these common grammatical errors, and use a writing assistant like Microsoft Editor to find your writing confidence.