Today's a short one. And more informative than corrective. And potentially controversial if other grammarians are reading this.
As far as punctuation goes, I
offer not a correction, but rather a plea. Please
use Oxford
I am a staunch supporter of the
Oxford comma, also known as the
Serial comma or Harvard comma. It's that comma after the penultimate word
in a list, right before the conjunction (good ol' FANBOYS) that introduces the final item. For
instance: I like running, jumping, and dancing. As you can see, I had two commas in that sentence. However, some grammarians
would argue that I should exclude the comma before “and dancing,” deeming it unnecessary punctuation. I am from the school of thought that recommends always using the Oxford
comma. Mostly for the sake of clarity.
Consider this next (and relatively viral) example [1]. “We invited the
strippers, JFK, and Stalin.” With the Oxford
comma, you know that the two men were invited along with an unknown number of
strippers. Without the Oxford
comma, it becomes, “We invited the strippers, JFK and Stalin.” Now JFK and Stalin
ARE the strippers— pasties, provocative moves, and all.
References and other links for more information:
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