Discussion
The Oxford Comma - Why and Why Not
semiversus: You mean "Why, and Why Not"
cosmotic: You'd only use the Oxford comma when the list is 3 or more items.
IAmBroom: Still funny.
exacube: obligatory oxford comma: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_i1xk07o4g
EuanReid: There are so many times the Oxford comma prevents ambiguity. I have yet to see a counterexample. Commas separate list entries, don't change it for the last one.
stephencanon: "I'd like to thank my mother, Ayn Rand, and God" is the usual example.Yes, you can reorder the list to remove the ambiguity, but sometimes the order of the list matters. The serial comma should be used when necessary to remove ambiguity, and not used when it introduces ambiguity. Rewrite the sentence when necessary. Worth noting that this is the Oxford University Press's own style rule!
alistairSH: I always heard this one...We invited the strippers, JFK, and Stalin to the party. [three groups invited - strippers, a president, and a premier]We invited the strippers, JFK and Stalin to the party. [the president and premier are strippers]Very different visual conjured by those two sentences.
smitty1e: There is a book "Eats Shoots and Leaves" that gets at the importance of knowing when (and when not) do deploy the punctuation:https://www.amazon.com/Eats-Shoots-Leaves-Tolerance-Punctuat...?I also enjoy how meaning of a whole sentence can be inverted by a bit of punctuation:a. "A woman without her man is nothing."b. "A woman: without her, man is nothing."
