Oxford Comma

[Darius871]

How many full stops are there in that paragraph?

whoosh

[Darius871]

No; the period and the capitalized word at the beginning of the next sentence accomplish that quite effectively on their own. You're just inventing justifications for incorrect personal preference now.

Of course those accomplish that quite effectively nearly all of the time. That's why I specifically addressed the exceptions where capitalization of a proper noun may appear to be the beginning of a sentence when it is not, the fact that multiple faxes and scans frequently obscure commas enough for them to look like periods, and the fact that the reader of what you write is frequently a **** whether you are or not. Christ, have you never worked in a large organization with the generation loss endemic to trans-national communications and co-workers or clients with a broad range of educational backgrounds? How hard is it to hit space a second time to have 100% **** insurance instead of 99%?

[Tupac Shakur]

There are plenty of ***** on this forum and we (even the illiterates like Sloww) seem to get along just fine without two spaces after sentences.

[Darius871]

There are plenty of ***** on this forum and we (even the illiterates like Sloww) seem to get along just fine without two spaces after sentences.

Fair enough. I have seen the light.

[Cort Haus]

I don't use the Oxford comma by default because I was taught as a child not to use one. However, if I was ever in a scenario such as the examples Asher described where the extra comma is required to accurately and unambiguously convey the correct meaning, then I would hopefully use one.

When breakfast consists of bacon, eggs, tomato and toast, the spoken word (in England at least) would usually pause between the first three but not the last, so not using the comma for the last item reflects the verbalisation. It also allows a sentence like the one I just typed to be constructed more elegantly, where an Oxford comma would, in my opinion, be clumsy.

[Asher]

I don't use the Oxford comma by default because I was taught as a child not to use one. However, if I was ever in a scenario such as the examples Asher described where the extra comma is required to accurately and unambiguously convey the correct meaning, then I would hopefully use one.

When breakfast consists of bacon, eggs, tomato and toast, the spoken word (in England at least) would usually pause between the first three but not the last, so not using the comma for the last item reflects the verbalisation.

In North American dialect I'm fairly certain the pause should be there between tomato and toast as well. This is probably why North America, statistically, uses the Oxford Comma much more.

I think the Oxford comma doesn't make that sentence clumsy, but more accurate to the spoken word of civilized society.

[Tupac Shakur]

Is "tomato and toast" a thing in England, or do you mean "tomato, and toast"?

In North American dialect I'm fairly certain the pause should be there between tomato and toast as well.

Yes.

[MikeH]

I wouldn't pause between any of them.

[MikeH]

The pause is implicit; the comma redunant.

[Asher]

The pause is implicit; the comma redunant.

If the pause between the last two items is identical to that of the prior items, the grammar should reflect that. Why not remove commas altogether from lists and note that the pause is implicit?

[MikeH]

It does reflect it with the use of the word "and".

[Cort Haus]

Perhaps we should just put curly braces round lists.

[MikeH]

[Asher]

It does reflect it with the use of the word "and".

"bacon and eggs" != "bacon, and eggs"

[Asher]

server suckage