It’s a good thing you brought up that Facebook posting for clarification. Whoever posted it obviously meant well in advocating the use of the Oxford comma, but unfortunately, the sentences given as examples for its usage seriously misrepresent what it is. This is then an excellent opportunity to rectify the error so that Facebook members and English users in general won’t be misled about the nature of this form of punctuation.
The Oxford comma, which is also known as the serial comma or series comma or Harvard comma, is called into service only when a sentence lists
a series of three or more terms or grammar elements. It is placed immediately before the conjunction “and,” “or,” or “nor” that links the last term or grammar element to the series. In the following sentence, for example, the comma preceding the conjunction “and” is an Oxford comma: “The private aircraft made stopovers in Manila, Seoul
, and Anchorage.”
The fundamental error in that sentence posted on Facebook about the Oxford comma is that it has only two serial elements, namely “Lorie” and “Mia.” Thus, in that sentence, “For Mawe’s birthday party, they invited two sexy dancers, Lorie
, and Mia,” the comma preceding “and Mia” isn’t a valid Oxford comma; its presence only serves to truncate the sentence. If at least one more sexy dancer (let’s call her “Alona”) had been invited to that party, the Oxford comma would have been grammatically called for: “For Mawe’s birthday party, they invited three sexy dancers, Lorie, Mia
, and Alona.”
Because of this fundamental error in that example for Oxford comma usage, this example in that Facebook posting for the non-use of the Oxford is also wrong: “For Mawe’s birthday party, they invited two sexy dancers
, Lorie and Mia.” In fact, there’s no serial comma at all in that sentence; the comma after the word “dancers” isn’t a serial comma but simply a comma that sets off the appositive phrase “Lorie and Mia.”
I said at the outset that whoever made that Facebook posting meant well in advocating the Oxford comma, and I’d like to add that I myself am a consistent user of the serial comma in my writings. But I need to point out here that the usage of the Oxford comma isn’t a hard-and-fast rule in English but only a stylistic preference.
Although most style guides in American English prescribe the use of the Oxford or serial comma, many print journalism outlets in the United States and in the Philippines are actually averse to using it. In my case, though, I consistently use the Oxford comma because I strongly believe that it enhances the clarity of sentences with serial lists, particularly those with items consisting of long phrases with more than four or five words, like the following:
“The major businesses in the domestic pet services industry are traditional veterinary services, fancy pet grooming and makeover shops, a wide assortment of animal and bird food, freshwater and marine fish of various kinds and aquarium equipment and supplies for industrial and home use.”
Now put an Oxford comma right before the last item, “and aquarium equipment and supplies for industrial and home use,” and see how powerfully it clarifies that sentence!
EARLIER FORUM POSTINGS ON THE SERIAL COMMA:“Why I consistently use the serial comma” “On the question over my use of the serial comma”
