Thanks to a Facebook posting from Anna, I have learned of some troubling news. Oxford University style guide is recommending the abandoning of the "Oxford comma". I love that comma, though in truth I never knew it was called that. This was reported by a British Newspaper called The Independent. You can read the full article HERE.
I am very sad about the loss of this key mark of punctuation. It is the comma before "and" marking the final item in a list. Instead of "Pigs, horses and cows" I would write "Pigs, horses, and cows." For as long as I have been in university it has been optional to put the comma before the "and," but whatever you chose had to be consistent throughout the paper. I always chose the extra comma, it makes the list so much clearer. I guess it is gone. I may mourn the loss.
4 comments:
Darn, I always use that extra comma as well - not sure why but I definitely like it better than without.
Teri
So, will there be a comma burial, day of mourning ???
Mum
never liked that comma anyway
No need to be sad, it was just a suggestion, the serial comma lives on:
"Shortly after the sky fell, a clarification was issued. The Oxford comma had not been abandoned by its champions, Oxford University Press, but by the University's branding people, in a style (and doomed, I imagine) guide to try to get academics to be consistent."
;)
Post a Comment