The Oxford Comma - Right? Wrong? Who Even Knows

The English language, as you’re probably finding out, can be quite a complicated beast. One of the reasons that it’s sometimes described as being difficult to learn is that there are lots of contradictions and hard-and-fast grammatical rules.  

However, one area where the rules are surprisingly vague is the Oxford comma, and in this case, the lack of rules makes everything a little more complicated.   

In this quick guide, we’ll take you on a whistle-stop tour of all things Oxford comma, including what it is, when you should use it and why it’s such a bone of contention. 

What is the Oxford comma? 

The Oxford comma, also known as the serial comma, is the final comma in a list of things. For example: 

“Could you bring me my hat, scarf, and pipe?”  

The Oxford comma comes after ‘scarf’.  

Usually, when most people learn English, whether at school or as an international student, they are taught that the final comma is not necessary. Instead, you would write: 

“Could you bring me my hat, scarf and pipe?” 

Both of these examples are perfectly acceptable, so the use of the Oxford comma becomes a matter of choice - some people like it and some people don’t. 

When should you use the Oxford comma? 

As long as you’re not writing for a publication with a style guide that bans the use of the Oxford comma, then you are free to use it in your writing. However, the key is that you MUST BE CONSISTENT. If you use it once in a piece of work then make sure you use it throughout. 

While most newspapers and publications are either for or against the Oxford comma, some are more flexible. They argue that it should be used where it can avoid ambiguity and there are some situations when it can come in handy. For example: 

“Please can you bring me some pickle, bread and cheese, and my chutney?” 

Without the Oxford comma, this sentence becomes harder to read because the bread and cheese is a grouping pair that belongs together as a single item on the list. Another example is: 

“I can’t wait to see the Spice Girls, Adele, and Florence and the Machine this weekend!”   

Here, the Oxford comma serves the key purpose of telling the reader that Florence and the Machine is one musical act. Remove the Oxford comma and you’re left with a jumbled mess.  

Generally, the Oxford comma is more common in American English than British English, and interestingly, many languages, such as German, French and Italian, do not use the Oxford comma at all. 

What are the arguments against the Oxford comma?  

Okay, so we’ve discussed how the Oxford comma can be useful but what are the arguments against it? 

Some people argue that the use of the Oxford comma is pompous and pedantic and that written sentences can be understood perfectly well without it. It’s also argued that the use of the word ‘and’ in a list of things provides enough separation between the final two items and anything else is unnecessary.  

Another point of view is that any ambiguity there might be when an Oxford comma isn’t used can be easily resolved by rephrasing the sentence. For instance, in the examples above, you can easily remove any confusion by reordering the items in the list: 

“Please can you bring me some bread and cheese, pickle and my chutney?”  

“I can’t wait to see Florence and the Machine, the Spice Girls and Adele this weekend!” 

The debate goes on… 

The likelihood is that we’ll never reach a consensus on whether the Oxford comma is right or wrong. As it stands, it’s both grammatically correct and grammatically unnecessary most of the time. However, there are occasions when it does serve a purpose, as SkyNews found out when it announced on Twitter that: “World leaders at Mandela tribute, Obama-Castro handshake and same-sex marriage date set…”