Pact, my employer, uses AP Style, which favors brevity over anything else. Actually, the entire field of international development is moving toward using AP, an initiative led by USAID.
Putting aside my other feelings about AP style in our field (e.g., how are we supposed to cite our sources?!), there is one entry in the AP stylebook that I disagree with, with every fiber of my being. You may have guessed it: AP’s opposition to the Oxford comma, also known as the serial comma.
When I arrived at Pact, I discussed this with my supervisor and our lead writer. We talked about our organization’s writing style and how to proceed. We agreed that the Oxford comma ensures that writing always is clear and that, instead of giving Pact staff a whole list of directives on when to use and not use the serial comma, it made more sense to advise you to use it every time in your writing. We even added the Oxford comma to our internal list of exceptions to AP style!
Take the example in the meme at right. Without the Oxford comma, we wouldn’t know if you were having a party and inviting all the rhinoceri AND two of the US’s greatest presidents, Washington and Lincoln. Or if your rhino buddies were named Washington and Lincoln.
There is literally no instance in which using the Oxford comma in a list makes the writing more confusing. If you can prove me wrong, please do!
Why am I bringing this up now? Well, not that long ago the interwebs were abuzz with a story out of Maine (USA), whereby the United States Court of Appeals ruled in favor of a group of dairy drivers because of the Oxford comma. You can read more about this in a number of articles, including this one from The Guardian.
The gist of the case, according to The Guardian’s article:
[T]he lack of a comma made part of Maine’s overtime laws too ambiguous… The state’s law says the following activities do not count for overtime pay: The canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of: (1) Agricultural produce; (2) Meat and fish products; and (3) Perishable foods. The drivers argued, due to a lack of a comma between “packing for shipment” and “or distribution”, the law refers to the single activity of “packing”, not to “packing” and “distribution” as two separate activities. As the drivers distribute – but do not pack – the goods, this would make them eligible for overtime pay.
Granted, legal writing is a rather different kind of writing than what we do, where every letter’s and punctuation mark’s placement can greatly affect the document’s meaning. Still, clearly, punctuation matters!
In conclusion, use the Oxford/serial comma. Make it a habit. And, remember:
Memes were taken from: https://dailytrojan.com/2015/11/12/to-oxford-comma-or-not-to-oxford-comma/; http://ed.ted.com/lessons/grammar-s-great-divide-the-oxford-comma-ted-ed; https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/946417-oxford-comma; https://americandigest.org/sidelines/2011/11/defending_the_o.html
Clean Composition by Rachel Elrom 