I went through my grammar school days apathetic about the Oxford comma. My teachers and textbooks declared that you can—but you don’t have to—include a comma before the “and” in a series. Therefore, both of the following are just fine:
A. For the road trip, we packed corn nuts, three ipods, two body pillows and a semi-feral ferret. [a, b, c and d]
B. For the road trip, we packed corn nuts, three ipods, two body pillows, and a semi-feral ferret. [a, b, c, and d]
The “Oxford comma” is the third comma found in B. Deleting the comma or keeping creates no confusion in the sentences, so there was no reason to slavishly adhere to one or the other (except, of course, for matters of consistency within a single project). I tend toward A in my own writing.
Well, all that changed when I saw this:
That does it. No more apathy. I’m sold, albeit with reservations.
I also ascribe to the school of minimizing the use of commas. Nothing is more annoying than the overuse of the unassuming little comma. Some argue the Oxford comma should only be used when its deletion would cause the confusion as shown in the graphic. The trick is to be aware of where the deletion might result in ambiguity.
The case is not settled. Oxford comma devotees will use the serial comma every single time. Minimalists will rearrange the sentence to reduce ambiguity rather than slip one more freaking comma in there. I may be an extremist in many areas of my life, but this isn’t one of them. For me, the Oxford comma has its place in removing confusion; otherwise, it’s not necessary.
Where do you stand?
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