Toe in the Water

The Oxford Comma

The Oxford Comma

Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about this creature named the Oxford comma. That’s the one that you might or might not put at the end of a list. As in “flowers, plants, growths, and other monstrosities.” That comma before the “and” is the Oxford comma, apparently.

The thing is, I’d never heard of such a thing before I came to America. My school education may have taken place an inordinate amount of time ago but I distinctly remember being told (and having read) that putting a comma there is not required. It seemed to me that the word “and” functioned as a warning that the end of the list was coming and that there was no need of a comma therefore. It’s all about breathing, after all, and lists contain loads of commas and opportunities for breathing as a result.

In the Land of the Free, however, I kept running into people who would tell me that I needed to put a comma there (while indicating my comma-less “and” standing proudly as the penultimate word in the list). After several discussions about this, I learned that it is called the Oxford comma. And I fought it for many a year.

But I have had second thoughts. It strikes me that we often do pause before saying “and” when reaching the last item in a list. And a comma is nothing if it does not indicate a pause. I took the plunge and tried using it. The world did not end. I used it a few times and still no one seemed to care. I accepted the thing.

But I am not a true convert. I use the Oxford comma when it seems appropriate to me. And not otherwise. It all depends on the flow and state of the reader’s breathing as to whether I’ll throw one in or not. To me, the Oxford comma has become that most marvellous of mythical creatures, optional punctuation.

So, no doubt, both sides will be shooting at me now. That’s okay - I and my amazing, disappearing Oxford comma can take it. But what I really want to know (and the reason for this whole post) is why it is called the Oxford comma. It seems odd that it should be so widespread in America but retain a name rooted in the soil and universities of my homeland. Wouldn’t it more appropriately be known as the Harvard comma? I can’t imagine that those stuffy and reactionary types fulminating on grammatical matters in the halls of Oxford U would own such a revolutionary beast as this comma. Has the name been taken in vain? Or was it some rebel from our oldest university that first postulated this alteration to the rules of punctuation? I find that hard to believe.


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