Taking Stock of The Oxford Comma Wars

The good, the bad and the grammatically ambiguous.

Those of us who aspire to a quiet life know that (in polite company) we should never raise the topics of politics, religion, or whether it’s advisable to deploy an extraneous comma before “and” or “or” in a series of three or more terms. The question of the Serial Comma—known to pedants as the “Oxford Comma,” and to delusional Harvard pedants as the “Harvard Comma”—has been the source of more enthusiastic bomb-throwing amongst the grammatically inclined than almost any other topic (with the possible exception of what-all we ought to be doing w/r/t “irregardless”).

In 1940, the journal American Speech surveyed the state of the Oxford Comma Wars in an article entitled “The Serial Comma before ‘And’ and ‘Or’,” by R. J. McCutcheon, who—even then—was aware of the passions inflamed by his topic.

The rule of punctuation calling for a comma before and or or joining the last two members of a series, may seem the most unimportant subject in the world but I have found such strong opinions for and against its application that I am presenting some of my findings.