The Comma Dilemma
December 31, 2007 · Written by Melissa Donovan
When you use commas to separate items in a list or series, do you include a comma before the conjunction near the end of the list? For example:
I write poetry, short stories and articles.
or
I write poetry, short stories, and articles.
Breaking an Old Habit
For years, my habit was to place commas in the manner shown in the first example above. Then, I realized that this was not the most intelligible method, for it left certain sentences open to interpretation; it caused some sentence meanings to be misconstrued entirely. I’ll show you what I mean.
The magazine was packed with colorful ads, snappy titles and articles which I reviewed while standing in line.
or
The magazine was packed with colorful ads, snappy titles, and articles which I reviewed while standing in line.
Notice that in the first sentence, it seems that both the titles and articles are snappy, while in the second sentence, only the titles are snappy.
Punctuation Has a Purpose
Commas are generally best thought of as pauses. Punctuation in general is meant to communicate rhythm and intonation to the reader, much like musical notation tells a player how long to hold a note and when to rest a beat. This is another important aspect of the comma that you might want to keep in mind when considering which approach to use in your own writing. Read the sentence out loud and if a pause is warranted, a comma probably is as well.
Yet, this usage of the comma is not mandated by any means. In fact, whether or not to include the serial comma is technically left up to the writer as a style decision. Leave it in or out as you will, and at your own risk. Either way, there is no grammatical crime committed, though perhaps a style faux pas.
What the Masters Say
According to the The Chicago Manual of Style
Items in a series are normally separated by commas. When a conjunction joins the last two elements in a series, a comma — known as the serial or series comma or the Oxford comma — should appear before the conjunction.
In case you’re wondering, the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
As mentioned, this is a style, not a grammar issue. So, in the end, whatever choice you make as you write, it’s important to keep it consistent. If you use serial commas, use them always, and if you don’t use them, well, make it a point to never use them. When it comes to style, consistency is key.
So, which way does your serial comma blow?
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The question of comma use is one fraught with conflict in the web content writing world. Purists stick to the traditions of 100 years ago and more. Minimalists say less is more.
The trend is clear: Don’t overpunctualize and when a comma isn’t particularly necessary to the understanding of the sentence, opt for dropping it.
But for cripes’ sake, people, that doesn’t mean to drop ALL commas and stop using anything but a period! I’ve seen such badly punctuated writing because people go to the extreme that it makes me shake my head in sadness at the state of affairs.
(Okay, well, I mostly just roll my eyes and sigh, but hey.)
Commas are necessary to language and do have their purpose. Don’t drop the bloody things completely. That’s not being in vogue with fashion and style - that’s just stupid.
For the record, sometimes I use serial commas, sometimes I don’t.
In your example for “Breaking an Old Habit,” you’re misusing “which,” which takes a comma and cleans up your sentence. This also eliminates, in my opinion, the need for the extra comma.
Correct: The magazine was packed with colorful ads, snappy titles and articles, which I reviewed while standing in line.
or
Correct: The magazine was packed with colorful ads, snappy titles, and articles that I reviewed while standing in line.
or
The magazine was packed with colorful ads, snappy titles and articles that I reviewed while standing in line.
or
The magazine was packed with colorful ads, snappy titles, and articles, which I reviewed while standing in line.
I have always used the serial comma. It was during a term paper back in high school where I realized that there could be confusion (as noted in your snappy example). Since then, I’ve been as consistent as the sun does shine.
I was taught NOT to use serial commas, and often marked down for doing so. Even though this was during the Nixon era, a long time ago, I feel uncomfortable when I include them.
Old habits / hard.
@James, I am definitely of the less is more school of thought. I also agree that punctuation usage is abysmal these days.
@Sara, yes, I considered using the comma before which in my example sentence. For this particular usage, I’m still indecisive, since I haven’t come across an instance where it affects meaning and certainly the comma is not required for rhythm (thought it can be read with or without a pause). I didn’t feel that was appropriate here since it’s too restrictive, and well, it just didn’t sound right (I tested it). Thanks Sara, and I’ll post on which vs. that and the comma preceding which one day soon.
@Michelle, if nothing else, I do try to be consistent. In recent years, I’ve made several such changes to my own writing style and once I decide to take a new approach, I stick to it. However, I am having difficulty training my fingers to only include one space after a period after many years of putting two spaces between sentences!
@Dick, old habits are hard to break, don’t I know it!
I use serial commas unless I’m writing something for a newspaper, as AP style does not use serial commas. But there are times, as your example, where serial commas are required, and I prefer to remain consistent and use them all the time.
Very interesting post, Melissa! I’m afraid I may be inconsistent. :’( I’ll have to take time and see. This is something I’m going to really focus on in 2008. I plan on improving my writing skills as much as possible. I realize my writing needs improvement.
Off topic:
One thing I haven’t decided on is this: which style guide is used more–Chicago or AP? And… why? I’ve thought about just buying them both! Should I? This is really driving me crazy. Some people say only use Chicago. Others say AP is the only way to go… I know I should already have one or the other, but it’s confusing because there are so many different opinions. I’ve even been told I don’t need either one. Huh? That is surely wrong. Right?
I’ll also wear humility *blushes* and say this: You might do a lesson on who/whom.
Help!
Smiles,
Michele
P.S.
Thanks so much for your sweet comment on my blog! I feel so honored.
Michele, I started to reply but ended up with an entire post rather than a quick response suitable for comments. Stay tuned for a post on style guides later this week!
Thanks, Melissa. I can’t wait!
@ Melissa - good luck finding the preferred style… every client has his or her own
Bah. Not Melissa. Michele. Apologies.
Thank you, James. I’m anxious to hear Melissa’s advice in her upcoming post on the topic.
I learned not to use the final comma in the series, and Tamara learned that it was needed. When we started working together, she asked that I start including it so that our writing is consistent. Since it wasn’t something that felt like a hard-and-fast rule to me but really bothered her, I was fine with changing my approach.
I’m a consistant serial comma-ist.
At least, I hope I’m consistant. For anyone who needs to be convinced of its importance I recommend, “Eats, Shoots & Leaves” by Lynne Truss. It’s a brilliant ‘zero tolerance’ guide to punctuation.
Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m perfect. As Melissa can attest, I came to her for help today on comma issues. I also turned to Strunk and White’s, “The Elements of Style”.
For what it’s worth, Melissa, I went with, “When it ended abruptly, she was devastated.” As you said, it is often the pauses that make the difference and it just feels much nicer to pause there when reading.
Rebecca, I just started reading Eats, Shoots, and Leaves and will do a review when I’ve finished it. So far, I love the author’s wit and humor, but I’m thinking the publishers should have Americanized it for its release here in the states. You’re in Australia… how different is English there as opposed to the states or Britain?
Your writing is very consistent indeed! Your sentence, “When it ended abruptly, she was devastated,” involves a dependent clause preceding the main clause. I checked Chicago (just to be sure) and the comma is in line with their recommendation: “A dependent clause that precedes a main clause should be followed by a comma.”
I’m not really sure how it compares. My own writing is rather Americanized since I’ve learnt most of my writing skills and rules from U.S. writers and resources (such as here). For some reason I never managed to absorb this information in school so I don’t actually know of grammar differences between U.S. U.K. and A.U. English.
There are quite a few word differences. Those can be fun to explore and bring a chuckle when I use an Aussie term that is unfamiliar.
Thank you for the kind compliment in regards to my writing.
Learning both the Chicago Style and the AP Style have become one of my priorities at the moment. Especially since I recently landed a regular contract job that requests AP Style.