A powerful little guy, the comma has more use cases than any other punctuation mark in English writing. Many English style guides permit commas to separate nonessential pieces of information from a body of text, set off introductory phrases, delineate lists, split dependent clauses from independent clauses and more.
One of the most hotly debated usages of the comma among English grammarians and orthographers, however, is that of the “serial comma.” When using the comma to delineate a series of items, some grammarians believe you ought to place a comma right before the last item in the list.
However, many style guides — particularly in the American journalism industry — explicitly proscribe or ban the use of the serial comma. “The Associated Press Stylebook”, which the Communiqué uses, notes that the final comma in a series should always be removed unless its removal would make the sentence ambiguous.
Indeed, a few of my coworkers have expressed their chagrin at the loss of the Oxford comma, indicating that there are some people who believe that such a use is an essential part of English writing. But is this really the case?
Let’s look at some examples. Observe this sentence: “Mike bought bananas, oranges and apples at the store.” This sentence lacks the serial comma, which some might say causes ambiguity within this sentence, but I would argue otherwise.
Because the items here are common count nouns with one meaning, this sentence can only be read as a list with three items. With lists, ambiguity is normally caused when plural or group nouns are intentionally placed in a very specific and confusing way.
Look at this next example: “I would like to thank my parents, Ayn Rand and God.” This is a very popular example when explaining the importance of the serial comma. However, it is misleading. In this situation, the word “parents” refers to a set of two people, and the words which follow it could easily be interpreted as the set to which “parents” refers.
Nonetheless, this interpretation could easily be avoided by simply rearranging the order of the elements: “I would like to thank Ayn Rand, my parents and God.” In this revision, there is not a single interpretation of this sentence where the list includes more or less than three elements. This is why the AP Stylebook recommends rewording the sentence instead of resorting to using the serial comma. Yes, the comma is a very important part of the English language; I am not trying to argue against that. Even so, the comma finds itself bogged down by so many separate uses.
When these usages overlap, many English style guides prefer that you find a more apt punctuation mark instead. For example, the “AP Stylebook” requires that colons set off lengthy quotes and semicolons separate listed elements when any element, for whatever reason, already includes a comma.
Despite all of this, I still think that serial commas are important. Even though the comma itself is incredibly oversaturated with use cases, having something to disambiguate groups of items in a series is not only the standard but also vital in aiding with reading comprehension. As writers, our duty is to provide clarity to our readers and sometimes, the best way to do that is by using what is considered standard.
The next time you write, pay attention to every bit of punctuation you use. Why do you use them? Are you using your commas prosodically, stylistically or in a totally different manner? By learning how commas work, you could learn a lot about English grammar. Your writing will improve as well, which is a very important yet overlooked skill in the modern era.
Categories: Opinion
